Gamecocks Sweep Tennessee
March 25, 2018
COLUMBIA, S.C. – No. 15 South Carolina completed its fifth ever sweep over Tennessee with a commanding 15-5 win in five innings over the No. 2 Lady Volunteers on Sunday at Carolina Softball Stadium at Beckham Field. Carolina trailed 5-2 heading to the bottom of the third before posting eight runs, including Alyssa Kumiyama‘s three-RBI double, to change the course of the game and give the Gamecocks their first sweep over a top-5 opponent in the SEC era.
Carolina had 35 plate appearances and forced Tennessee to use four difference pitchers, with the longest outing lasting just two innings.
The Gamecocks improved to 28-4 (5-1) with the series sweep of the Lady Volunteers, marking just the third time since 2011 a team has swept Tennessee.
Dixie Raley (8-1) earned the win in the circle, coming on in relief to pitch three innings.
South Carolina (28-4, 5-1 SEC) matched Tennessee step for step the first two innings. The Lady Volunteers took an early 1-0 lead with a run in the first before Mackenzie Boesel came around to score and tie the game on the second wild pitch of the inning for Tennessee. The scoring continued in the second after the Lady Volunteers got one in the top frame before Jana Johns tied it at 2-2 with a solo home run.
The third inning would eventually be the deciding frame after Tennessee took a 5-2 lead with a three-run home run. The Lady Volunteers looked to have grabbed the momentum needed to avoid the sweep until Carolina’s offense stepped to the plate.
Cayla Drotar started the comeback effort with a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Boesel to cut it to 5-3 before Kennedy Clark tied it one batter later at 5-5 with a two-run double to right.
Kumiyama showed the Gamecocks weren’t satisfied with just five runs, as she blasted a ball off the wall in right to score three runs and give Carolina its first lead of the afternoon at 8-5. Krystan White continued the offense later in the inning with a double to left, scoring Kamryn Watts and Boesel to make it 10-5 Gamecocks after three.
A three-run Tiara Duffy home run highlighted a five-run fourth inning for the Gamecocks before Raley held the Lady Volunteers scoreless in the fifth to give Carolina the run-rule victory.
Duffy led the way at the plate going 2-for-2 with three RBI. White also shined going 1-for-4 with three RBI. On the day six different Gamecocks brought home runs while seven scored.
Notes
- With the win tonight, Carolina improved to 28-4 (5-1) on the year and has still not lost consecutive games all season. This is the Gamecocks’ best start to conference play since 2005 and marks the first time all season Tennessee has lost three-straight games.
- Tiara Duffy posted a strong series, batting .625 on five hits with three runs scored and four RBI. She notably blasted two home runs on the weekend with a 1.375 slugging percentage and .667 on-base percentage.
- Carolina earned the series win over Tennessee with the 5-4 victory on Saturday. This marked the first series win over the Lady Volunteers since 2015, and just the fifth since 2000. Today’s win gave the Gamecocks their first sweep over Tennessee since 2002. This was just the third sweep over the Volunteers since the two teams started playing in 1997.
- Head coach Beverly Smith moved to 255-182 after the Tennessee win. She is the second-winningest coach in school history.
Up Next
Carolina closes its five-game home stand on Wednesday at 7:00 PM ET on SEC Network against Furman. Live stats will also be on gamecocksonline.com.
