Maguire Homer Leads Gamecocks To Victory Over Aggies
April 1, 2018
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS –Trailing 3-2 in the top of the sixth, No. 8 South Carolina softball’s Kenzi Maguire blasted a three-run homer to leftfield to give the Gamecocks the lead they wouldn’t surrender in a 5-3 win over No. 12 Texas A&M on Sunday at the Aggie Softball Complex. The win moved Carolina to 30-6 (6-3 SEC) on the year.
After the Gamecocks jumped out to a 2-0 lead through four thanks to Mackenzie Boesel‘s RBI single in the third and Jana Johns‘ homer in the fourth, the Aggies responded with a three-run home run in the fifth to make it 3-2 Aggies through five.
Facing a two-out situation with Kennedy Clark and Johns on base, Maguire delivered with her second home run of the season to give Carolina a 5-3 lead just three outs after the Aggies took their first lead of the game.
With the win, the Gamecocks move to third place in the SEC standings through four weeks of conference action and finished the week 2-2 with wins over Furman and the Aggies.
South Carolina (30-6, 6-3 SEC) pressured Texas A&M’s (32-8, 5-4) Kayla Poynter early and often, jumping out to a quick 1-0 lead in the third thanks to Boesel’s RBI single to right to score Kamryn Watts.
The scoring continued in the fourth as Johns started the inning with a towering no-doubter to left to extend the Carolina lead to 2-0.
Kelsey Oh (9-2) earned the victory in circle, her first career SEC win, as she came on in relief for 2.1 innings allowing just one hit with two strikeouts.
Maguire led the way at the plate going 1-for-3 with the eventual game-winning homer. Boesel, Johns, Clark and Watts also accounted for hits on the afternoon.
Notes
- With today’s win, Carolina moved to 30-6 (6-3 SEC) on the year. The Gamecocks were recently ranked No. 8 in the country, their highest ranking since 1998.
- Carolina has won at least one game in both road series this season against No. 23 Ole Miss and No. 12 Texas A&M. Dating back to last season, the Gamecocks have done so in their last six SEC series on the road.
- Carolina is now just four wins away from tying last season’s total (34). The win over Texas A&M was the Gamecocks first since 2015 over the Aggies.
- Head coach Beverly Smith moved to 257-184 after Sunday’s game. She is the second-winningest coach in school history.
Up Next
No. 8 South Carolina returns to action for a four-game home stand starting with Georgia Southern at 6:00 PM ET on April 4 on SEC Network Plus. Live stats will also be on gamecocksonline.com.
