Playing in its first SEC game of the year, South Carolina (15-3) swung past Kentucky (13-4) for a 10-1 win.
The Wildcats started out strong, scoring in the top of the first inning as sophomore JaVon Shelby singled to advance junior Kyle Barrett around the bases for an unearned run.
Offensively, things did not look promising for South Carolina after four scoreless innings to open the game. But things changed in the bottom of the fifth as an upperclassman stepped up.
Junior Max Schrock started the fire for the Gamecocks with his grand slam to right field, allowing sophomore Gene Cone, junior Marcus Mooney and junior DC Arendas to score.
The Gamecocks their good hitting in the following three innings, adding two unearned runs in the sixth inning.
In the seventh inning two more runs were scored. Senior Patrick Harrington had an RBI ground-out, which Schrock scored on. Gore also singled, allowing senior Kyle Martin to score.
South Carolina earned its final two runs of the game when Schrock continued his hot hitting with a two-RBI triple in the eighth inning.
Sophomore Wil Crowe started the weekend series and pitched for seven innings, finishing with 10 strikeouts and only three walks. Crowe now has a 2.67 ERA on the season.
Senior relief pitcher Cody Mincey was in for two innings and had three strikeouts.
Sophomore Zach Brown started for the Wildcats and pitched 5.1 innings with four strikeouts. Junior relief pitcher Dylan Dwyer pitched for 0.2 innings and was quickly replaced by junior Taylor Martinwho pitched for two innings
The weekend series continues on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. at Carolina Stadiumwith junior Jack Wynkoop starting on the mound for the Gamecocks.