Nice to see you again, USC offensive production. Stick around for good now, okay?
The Yardcocks topped the Commodores 8-3 tonight in Nashville, a welcome (and much-needed) conference victory. Christian Walker went yard twice, the first time he’s done that in his career.
His three RBIs helped fuel South Carolina and got them on the board early, when he launched his first longball, a two-out shot to left field, in the first inning. In the seventh inning, his second homer went over the left field fence as well.
Tanner English was 2-for-5 and scored a run, DH Brison Celek, who’s been pretty successful in that role, brought in a pair of runs, and LB Dantzler, Grayson Greiner, and Evan Marzilli tallied an RBI each as well.
Both teams had chances to add more runs in late in the game, but neither one could capitalize when the bases were loaded.
The biggest inning for the Gamecocks was the third, when they scored five runs and blew the game open. Vanderbilt was never able to recover, scoring only two runs in the fourth and one in the seventh. That was due in part to dominant pitching by starter Michael Roth and closer (surprise!) Matt Price.
Roth threw six innings and surrendered all three of the Dores’ runs on five hits. He walked one batter and struck out three. Price hurled three shutout innings and allowed only one walk while striking out five batters. Roth tweeted after the game that he wasn’t pleased with his performance, but praised Price. Roth is hardly a slouch, but it’s clear that he’ll never settle for less than his best. He earned the win, his improving his record to 3-0 on the season. Price got his first save of the year and now has the most saves in school history. Kevin Ziomek took the loss for VU.
The Commodores and the Cocks are now both 2-5 in SEC play, but Vandy has had a rough season out of the conference, too. They’re 8-11 against non-SEC teams, and, like the Gamecocks, they’ve been struggling to win consistently following a highly successful 2011 season.
I have to admit, I had slight flashbacks to last weekend, where USC was stellar offensively on Friday night, but couldn’t make that happen for the rest of the weekend. The Dores and the Gators are hardly the same team, but the Yardcocks need to keep producing offensively and playing smart baseball, or they may find themselves in a deep hole.
A pair of freshman rightys will get the starts on the mound tomorrow, with Tyler Beede getting the nod for Vanderbilt and Evan Beal for Carolina. Beal is replacing Forrest Koumas in the rotation, at least for now.
The game is being broadcast on CSS and ESPN3 and is scheduled to begin at 4 ET. Make sure to follow Cocky Country on twitter for in-game updates and commentary!
