Baseball Sweeps Series from Princeton, Wins Saturday Twinbill
March 10, 2018
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina (11-5) notched two wins on Saturday to earn a series sweep of Princeton (0-7) at Founders Park. The Gamecocks beat the Tigers 7-3 in game one and 6-4 in game two, combining for 20 hits and four home runs. Carolina picked up its first series sweep of the season with the wins.
The Gamecocks pounded out 13 hits in game one with the top four batters in the order combining for 11 of those. TJ Hopkins, Madison Stokes and LT Tolbert all had three-hit games. Hopkins scored a game-high three runs and went 3-for-4 with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Cody Morris was solid in his fourth start of the season, throwing 6.0 innings, striking out six batters while giving up a pair of runs. Hunter Lomas came on in relief in the eighth and struck out three batters, giving up no hits and no runs in 2.0 innings of work en route to his first save of the season. Sawyer Bridges threw a clean inning of relief in the seventh.
Jonah Bride was outstanding in the field, making a number of solid plays while recording six of the team’s 11 assists.
In the second game, Eddy Demurias got the start. He rolled through the first three innings, striking out three Tigers while giving up no hits. The Gamecock offense backed him, scoring five runs in the first three innings.
Carolina jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom half of the first inning after Tolbert sent a three-run blast into the Gamecock bullpen. Princeton scored a pair in the top of the fourth and would score two more on back-to-back homers in the top of the sixth to pull within one, 5-4.
TJ Shook relived Demurias after the home runs but put the first two batters he faced on with back-to-back walks. Shook got the next man up, Taylor Beckett, to ground into a 5-4-3 double-play. He then struck out Brian Kregel to end the inning and get out of the jam with Carolina leading 5-4 still.
Carolina added some insurance in the eighth when Danny Blair scored on a two-out double by Madison Stokes. Carmen Miodinzki came in and closed things out for the Gamecocks in the ninth, recording his first save of the season.
GAMECHANGER
In game two of the doubleheader, Princeton cut South Carolina’s lead to 5-4 in the sixth after back-to-back home runs. TJ Shook came in and walked the first two batters, but wiggled out of trouble with a double play and strikeout.
KEY STAT
The top four players in the lineup (Noah Campbell, TJ Hopkins, Madison Stokes and LT Tolbert) combined to go 16-for-30 with 11 RBI in the doubleheader.
NOTABLE
- TJ Hopkins was on base seven times in the doubleheader, walking four times to go along with a double and home run in game one.
- South Carolina now has hit 26 home runs on the season after four long balls in the doubleheader.
- South Carolina sweeps its first weekend series since winning all three games at Tennessee in 2017 (March 17-19).
- Three different pitchers had saves over the weekend. John Gilreath picked up the save on Friday, while Hunter Lomas and Carmen Mlodzinski did the trick in the doubleheader.
UP NEXT
South Carolina remains at home for a midweek contest against Harvard on Wednesday evening. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. ET at Founders Park. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+ with Burch Antley (pxp) and Kip Bouknight (color) on the call. It’ll be the Gamecocks final home game before opening up SEC play against top-ranked Florida at home Friday.
