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Gamecocks slam Charleston Southern with home runs, shutout pitching

Set to travel to one of the toughest road environments in the country this weekend, South Carolina baseball made the most of its final game at home before the trip.

Powered by the first career grand slam of junior Josiah Sightler and a pitching staff that combined for a four-hitter, the No. 11 Gamecocks crushed Charleston Southern at Founders Park on Tuesday, 9-0.

On the mound, USC held the Buccaneers in check all evening and pounded the zone with strikes, walking just one batter. Freshman Jack Mahoney got the start and, overcoming a walk and single with one out in the second, needed just 65 pitches to go five scoreless innings, striking out seven.

After him, freshman Jackson Phipps, junior Wesley Sweatt, redshirt sophomore Julian Bosnic and freshman Magdiel Cotto combined for four shutout frames, striking out four more Bucs and permitting just three base runners.

With the pitching so firmly in control, what wound up being the Gamecocks’ winning runs came in the very first inning — leadoff hitter Brady Allen was hit by a pitch, advanced to third on a perfectly executed hit-and-run with Sightler and scored a fielder’s choice from junior Wes Clarke. Clarke then scored from first off a double to the wall from senior Andrew Eyster.

That didn’t stop USC from piling on, though. In the third inning, junior David Mendham doubled the lead with a two-out, two-run home run to the left field corner. And in the fourth inning, the game was blown wide open.

CSU sophomore reliever Chase Gockel ran into trouble right away to start that frame, struggling to find the zone at all and walking the first three batters he faced on just 14 pitches. After he came out and the Bucs retired one on a force play at home, Sightler stepped in and rocked the first pitch he saw 108 miles per hour off the bat and 407 feet away, where it landed on Williams Street outside Founders Park entirely.

The Gamecocks tacked on their final run in the fifth off a bases-loaded sacrifice fly from Allen, then cruised home from there, emptying the bench in the final few innings.

NEXT USC BASEBALL GAME

Who: No. 11 South Carolina vs. LSU

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: Alex Box Stadium, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Watch: ESPNU