Kerry's Gem Lifts Baseball Past Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky.  – Junior Brett Kerry went the distance, striking out 10 and allowing just four hits to pitch the first complete-game shutout for the University of South Carolina baseball team in seven years as the Gamecocks defeated Kentucky, 9-0, Saturday afternoon (May 15) at Kentucky Proud Park.
 
Kerry only needed 94 pitches to earn his fourth win of the season. It also was his first start of 2021.
 
Carolina gave Kerry all the runs he needed in the first on an RBI groundout from Josiah Sightler. Another RBI groundout, this one from David Mendham in the fifth, made it 2-0 Carolina. Andrew Eyster then broke the game open with a grand slam, his second of the season, to make it 6-0. Eyster drove in his fifth run with an infield single in the eighth. Braylen Wimmer ended the scoring with his second home run of the series, a two-run shot in the ninth.
 
Carolina used seven walks and five hit by pitches in its nine runs.

POSTGAME NOTES

• Kerry’s complete-game shutout was Carolina’s first since Wil Crowe did the trick against Campbell in the 2014 NCAA Columbia Regional.
• Carolina now has four grand slams this season, two of them from Eyster.
• The five hit by pitches ties a school record, set several times, the latest against College of Charleston on April 17, 2012.
• Kerry now has 75 strikeouts in 45 innings pitched this season.

UP NEXT
Carolina and Kentucky close out the three-game series on Sunday afternoon (May 16) with a 1 p.m. first pitch. The game will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.