After losing eight times in an 11-game span, the South Carolina baseball team has since won three straight contests after defeating The Citadel 4-2 at Carolina Stadium Wednesday evening.
With the victory, South Carolina is now 23-11 on the season and the Gamecocks have now defeated The Citadel twice this season, having won 2-0 against the Bulldogs last week in Charleston.
After falling behind 2-0 following the first two innings thanks to two solo home runs by The Citadel, South Carolina got back on track thanks to a four-run third inning.
Sophomore left fielder Jordan Gore opened up the scoring for the Gamecocks with a three-RBI single that sent in senior right fielder Elliott Caldwell, junior second baseman Max Schrock and sophomore center fielder Gene Cone.
Freshman designated hitter Madison Stokes also contributed, sending in a run via a single to left field.
Although home runs by Citadel freshman left fielder and freshman third baseman William Kinney put the Bulldogs ahead early, the South Carolina pitching staff was lights out from that point on, surrendering just five hits and zero runs for the rest of the night.
Freshman pitcher Clarke Schmidt started on the mound for South Carolina and despite his rough start to the game, completed four innings of work while striking out seven batters.
South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook made the most of an opportunity to use a plethora of pitchers Wednesday night as six different Gamecocks pitched.
Junior pitcher Vince Fiori earned the win for the Gamecocks as he replaced Schmidt and pitched 1.1 innings, giving up no runs.
Although The Citadel struggled at the plate for much of the game, the Bulldogs threatened to make a comeback in the ninth inning, loading the bases against South Carolina sophomore Taylor Widener.
Not phased, Widener worked out of the jam, forcing the Citadel junior shortstop to pop-out to end the game.
Widener now has eight saves on the season.
With the victory, the Gamecocks improved to 19-5 at Carolina Stadium this season and are now 7-5 against in-state opponents this season.
While South Carolina has now won three consecutive non-conference games, the Gamecocks have struggled as of late in SEC play.
South Carolina hasn’t won a conference series since sweeping Kentucky in mid-March and Holbrook’s team will look to change that when traveling down south to take on Florida this weekend.
The series against the Gators begins Friday and will end Sunday.
South Carolina went 1-3 against Florida in 2014.