Sixth-inning rally pushes Gamecocks past Bulldogs
Coach Ray Tanner denied that his team had a hangover from its weekend series with Florida, but the Gamecocks dug themselves a hole in the early innings of their matchup with The Citadel. Right-hander Bryce Hines held USC to one hit through the fourth, allowing the Bulldogs to jump out to a 4-0 lead.
But Carolina fought back on the strength of an outstanding performance from first baseman Christian Walker, who spearheaded the offense with four RBIs to lead USC to a 6-4 win.
“We struggled early because of Hines,” Tanner said. “He has a big-league breaking pitch; he’s got something that’s very special, and he was a little bit wildly effective. He was hard to square up. We expected that. Our scouting report was right on the money. You’ll have a hard time scoring and getting hits, and that’s what it was.”
Left-hander Adam Westmoreland struggled with his command from the outset, allowing a run in each of the first two innings that gave the Gamecocks an early deficit. Although he held The Citadel scoreless in the third, he opened the fourth inning by allowing a single and hitting a batter.
He was replaced by Jose Mata, who recorded two outs on a sacrifice bunt and a strikeout before giving up a single to second baseman Nick Orvin to improve the lead to 4-0. But that was the only hit the bullpen would surrender the entire night.
“The fact that we were able to hold them, keep them at bay with Mata, [John] Taylor, Matt [Price] — we had a chance to come back and make it a game or win the game,” Tanner said. “They were outstanding once again.”
USC got on the board in the fifth with four runs to tie the game. Outfielder Robert Beary started the rally with an infield single before Hines issued consecutive walks to infielders Scott Wingo and Peter Mooney.
With the bases loaded, Beary was retired at home on a fielder’s choice, but a walk from outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. pushed Carolina’s first run across the plate. Walker followed up with a bases-clearing double.
The sophomore first baseman struck again in the seventh inning, hitting his fifth home run of the year on a changeup from lefty Logan Cribb.
“It definitely felt good to square a ball up like that,” Walker said. “I’ve had hits here and there, but I haven’t been able to square the ball up like that for a while.”
The Gamecocks added an insurance run in the eighth. Batting with the bases loaded, Wingo drove in designated hitter Jake Williams with a single. Price proceeded to close the game in commanding fashion, striking out two of three hitters in the ninth to secure the comeback for USC.
“I don’t buy into hangover off the weekend or anything like that,” Tanner said. “You’re playing a team that typically has been very good, and we’ve played a lot of good games with them. They’ve been to the postseason many times. You’ve got to battle, and that’s what we did. We were fortunate we were able to win.”