Baseball Falls to Oklahoma Friday Night

COLUMBIA – The University of South Carolina baseball team dropped its Southeastern Conference opener, 8-5, to Oklahoma Friday night (March 14) at Ray Tanner Field at Founders Park.

Oklahoma scored four runs on four hits in the first inning. Brandon Stone settled down after that to give the Gamecocks five innings. He allowed seven hits and five runs with three strikeouts and two walks.

Carolina plated the first run in the fifth on Jordan Carrion’s triple followed by Henry Kaczmar’s RBI groundout. After Oklahoma scored a pair in the top of the sixth, Carolina came back with four in the bottom of the frame. Talmadge LeCroy drove in the first run with a single. Carrion’s groundout plated KJ Scobey and infield singles from Kaczmar and Nathan Hall brought in runs.

Oklahoma tacked on a run in the eighth on a solo home run for the final 8-5 total.

Scobey had three hits on the night while LeCroy, Kaczmar, Hall and Ethan Petry had two hits apiece. Matthew Becker struck out a pair in 1.2 innings of relief while Jackson Soucie and Parker Marlatt had three and two strikeouts apiece. Kyson Witherspoon earned the win for the Sooners, striking out seven in 5.1 innings, allowing six hits and three runs.

POSTGAME NOTES

• Hall now leads the team with nine multi-hit game.
• Hall has a nine-game hitting streak and a 12-game reached base streak.
• Carrion is hitting .421 in the team’s last five games.
• Oklahoma had three solo home runs on the night.

UP NEXT
Carolina and Oklahoma resume the three-game set on Saturday, March 15 with a 4 p.m., matchup at Ray Tanner Field at Founders Park. The game will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.