Baseball Shuts Out Georgia to Open SEC Tournament Play

HOOVER  –  James Hicks struck out six in 6.2 scoreless innings and the University of South Carolina baseball team belted out 12 hits in a 9-0 win over Georgia to open play in the Southeastern Conference Tournament Tuesday morning (May 23) at the Hoover Met.

Hicks threw a season high 90 pitches, allowing just four hits and no runs with two walks and the six strikeouts. Cade Austin earned his second save of the year, striking out three in 2.1 innings in Carolina’s fifth shutout of the season.

Will Tippett had three hits, including a three-run triple in the seventh that made it 8-0, while Talmadge LeCroy, Evan Stone and Braylen Wimmer had two hits apiece.

Carolina scored a pair of runs in the second on Stone’s single to left. The Gamecocks plated three in the fourth, three in the seventh with Tippett’s triple and one in the eighth.

POSTGAME NOTES

• The shutout was the first by Carolina in its SEC Tournament history.
• The win was head coach Mark Kingston’s 450^th career win.
• Carolina wins its first SEC Tournament game since the 2018 season in a win over Missouri.
• Tippett had a career high three hits in the win and his first triple.
• Hicks improved to 7-1 on the season and lowered his ERA to 3.23.
• The 12 hits marks the first time the Gamecocks have had 10 or more hits in a game since May 9 vs. North Florida.

UP NEXT
Carolina will face third-seeded LSU in the double-elimination portion of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday morning (Wednesday, May 24) at 10:30 a.m. EDT (9:30 a.m. CDT). The game will be televised on SEC Network.