Baseball Bests Harvard; Picks Up Fifth Straight Win
March 14, 2018
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina (12-5) had its offense clicking on Wednesday evening at Founders Park in a 12-3 win over Harvard (6-8). The Gamecocks belted out 14 hits, knocking in 11 runs. Freshman Parker Coyne recorded his first collegiate win, striking out four in 1.2 innings of relief.
“We hit well and our defense was good. That’s what you want to see. You want to see a complete team victory,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “You want to get a lot of guys in the game. You obliviously want to win the game, but you want to see good levels of play in all those categories. We did that. We were able to get six pitchers in the game today — a lot of hitters. The guys off the bench took some good at-bats. That’s the kind of game you want to play — no question about it — going into the conference weekend.”
The Crimson opened the game with back-to-back hits putting two runners on with no outs. They would score one, but freshman starter Logan Chapman worked out of the early jam thanks to a pair of strikeouts. Carolina answered in the bottom half of the opening stanza on RBI singles from Madison Stokes and LT Tolbert to take a 2-1 lead going into the second inning.
Chapman settled in, retiring six of the next eight batters he faced with three strikeouts. Freshman Noah Campbell scored his second run of the game in the bottom half of the third to push the Gamecock lead to 3-1. Harvard answered in the top half of the fourth after a solo shot by Austin Black to pull within one, 3-2.
Carolina blew things open though in the bottom half of the fourth, scoring four runs on four hits to take a 7-2 lead. The Gamecocks put runners on first with one out after Matt Williams and Carlos Cortes each got on with singles. Campbell stepped to the dish and grounded out to second to bring in Williams. TJ Hopkins then laced a single up the middle scoring Cortes and Hunter Taylor. Hopkins would go on to steal second and on the next pitch, Stokes brought him home with a hard-hit ball to the outfield — scoring the Gamecocks’ fourth run of the inning.
Harvard got one back in the fifth, and it had something cooking with runners on second and third with just one out. Coyne came on in relief and halted the rally, striking out both batters he faced to end the inning.
The Gamecocks had another big inning in the bottom of the seventh, scoring five runs on six singles to jump ahead 12-3. Olson, Cortes and Taylor began the inning with back-to-back-to-back hits.
GAMECHANGER
South Carolina blew open a one-run lead in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring four runs on four hits to jump ahead 7-2.
KEY STAT
Carolina’s six pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts. Four of the six hurlers fanned multiple batters.
NOTABLE
- Freshman Parker Coyne, a native of Prosperity, S.C., picked up his first collegiate win on Wednesday evening.
- With the victory, the Gamecocks improve to 12-3 at Founders Park and 11-0 when leading after the seventh inning during the 2018 season.
- Junior TJ Hopkins led the team with three RBIs, tying a season-high for the third time this season.
- For just the third time in 17 games this season, the Gamecocks did not hit a homerun. In fact, all 14 hits were singles for Carolina.
UP NEXT
South Carolina opens Southeastern Conference play this weekend against defending national champion and No. 2 Florida at Founders Park. Friday’s game will begin at 7 p.m. with Saturday’s start scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday’s game begins at 1 p.m. and will be televised on ESPNU. Friday and Saturday’s games will be televised on SEC Network+.
