In game two between Charleston Southern and South Carolina, the Bucs got on the board early in the first inning off a home run. That was all Charleston Southern could hold on to, as the Gamecock offense took off to lead them to the 14-2 win and clinch the weekend series.
"Another complete game for us," head coach Mark Kingston said following the win. "Pitched really well, played great defense and obviously offensively that's where we want to be. So good day for us and now it's on to tomorrow."
The offense kicked off in the bottom of the second, as the Gamecocks started stringing singles and a walk together to get three runs and take the lead. Every Gamecock starter had at least one hit in the game, giving them a season-high 15 hits on the day.
Three more Gamecocks went yard in Saturday's win, giving them 16 home runs on the season. Jacob Olson hit his fourth of the year, while Justin Row got his second. South Carolina is exceeding overall with extra base hits, with one double and a triple in Saturday's game. They're now up to 30 hits for extra bases so far this season.
Carlos Cortes entered Saturday's game in an early-season slump, but got out of that early on. After striking out twice, he hit a two-RBI single into right field, and then hit a two-run home run in his next at-bat, his first long ball of the season. Cortes said he wasn't really worried about his slump but that it did feel good to start seeing pitches well on Saturday.
"I wouldn't say that the first few games were frustrating, just missing a few good pitches," Cortes said. "But my team's winning, my team's hitting a lot of home runs, so it kind of makes it easier on me, so it wasn't that frustrating."
The Gamecocks are currently on a six-game win streak, and have now outscored their opponents 57-8 during this stretch. They've scored 63 runs on 75 hits since the start of the season.
Cody Morris got his second win of the season, throwing five innings and giving up just two runs on four hits. He allowed just one walk, something that Kingston said he's stressing within his pitching staff. Kingston also said that the offense being so strong helped make the pitchers even better.
"I think what we're seeing is that our offense is pretty good, has improved, but I also think what you're seeing is our pitchers got better for facing that offense," Kingston said. "I'm surprised a little bit that we're pitching so well. We thought we would pitch effectively, but where we are right now I think is even better than where we thought we would be this early in the season."
South Carolina will now look to sweep its first weekend series of the season, as the finale against Charleston Southern is at noon on Sunday. Ridge Chapman is set to take the mound for the Gamecocks.