Baseball Falls to Vanderbilt in Series Opener

NASHVILLE – The University of South Carolina baseball team fell in the series opener at Vanderbilt, 9-1, Thursday night (May 14) at Hawkins Field.

Carolina opened the scoring in the top of the second as Ethan Lizama brought in Tyler Bak from first with a single down the line in right. Vanderbilt came right back and plated four runs in the bottom of the second on a pair of two-run singles.

The Commodores added a four-spot in the fifth with three RBI singles and a sacrifice fly. A Chris Maldonado RBI double in the seventh gave Vandy a 9-1 lead.

Lizama had two of Carolina’s four hits on the night. Amp Phillips was tagged with the loss for the Gamecocks, going 1.1 innings and allowing five hits and four runs with two strikeouts.

POSTGAME NOTES

• Parker Marlatt pitched two scoreless innings of relief, striking out three.
• Josh Gunther made his first appearance of May and went two innings of relief, striking out a batter while allowing a run on two hits.
• Carolina struck out 11 times in Thursday’s game.

UP NEXT

Carolina and Vanderbilt continue the three-game series on Friday night (May 15) with a 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET) first pitch at Hawkins Field. The game will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.