South Carolina baseball won its midweek game 13-3 against USC Upstate on Tuesday evening.
Sophomore pitcher Tyler Pitzer made his second start on Tuesday night against the Spartans and had a strikeout in his one inning of work.
Pitzer struggled with command early, giving up a walk and a single. Despite an intentional walk loading the bases with two outs, Pitzer earned his first strikeout of the night to end the early threat.
Junior outfielder Ethan Petry got the first hit of the night for the Gamecocks in the bottom of the first inning with an infield single. The bases were loaded quickly for the Gamecocks after back-to-back walks, as a grand slam from senior outfielder Dalton Mashore emphatically pushed the Gamecocks in front 4-0.
"I'm happy to have the opportunity and grateful," Mashore said. "What better situation I could be put in with the bases loaded my first at-bat, you know, just trying to stay loose and calm and just do the job."
The Gamecocks added to the lead in the second inning with Petry notching his 53rd career home run to put the Gamecocks up 6-0.
A two-run home run for redshirt junior outfielder Scott Campbell put the Spartans on the board in the fourth inning to cut into the Gamecocks' 6-2 lead.
A one-out walk and hit-by-pitch put runners on base for the Spartans' hitters in the fifth inning. Another walk loaded the bases and saw freshman pitcher Zach Russell’s outing end. Sophomore pitcher Parker Marlatt entered the jam and got the final strikeout to leave the bases loaded for the Spartans for a second time.
Freshman infielder KJ Scobey and sophomore catcher Ryan Bakes got their first hits of the game in the sixth inning. Junior infielder Henry Kaczmar singled to load the bases with no outs for junior outfielder Nathan Hall, who drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Gamecocks a 7-2 lead.
Senior infielder Jordan Carrion drove in three more runs for the Gamecocks with a one-out double, pushing the lead to 10-2. Two more walks once again loaded the bases with a two-RBI single, courtesy of Scobey, putting the Gamecocks ahead 12-2.
The Spartans had an opportunity to avoid the run-rule loss after a base hit followed by a walk led off the seventh inning. With two outs, senior designated hitter Johnny Sweeney had the RBI single to make it 12-3, continuing the game into the bottom of the seventh.
Junior pinch hitter Cayden Gaskin hit a walk-off home run to give the Gamecocks the 13-3 run-rule win.
The Gamecock bullpen had six innings of work, striking out eight batters and giving up three runs.
"I know that they were a confident bunch coming in here, and that's where Dalton's big swing there — we hadn't been getting a lot of clutch hits — and that was a pretty clutch one there, not only to drive in a couple of runs," head coach Paul Mainieri said. "I mean, I love grand slams more than just about anything I know."
What's next?
South Carolina travels to Texas A&M for a three-game series starting on Thursday at 8 p.m. The games will be streamed on SEC Network+.