COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Presbyterian College baseball team faced
off against the defending national champion No. 3 South Carolina Gamecocks on
Tuesday night at Carolina Stadium in hopes of knocking off the champs, but the Gamecocks
held off the Blue Hose for a 6-1 win.
PC moves to 20-29 overall, while South Carolina improves to
38-10.
John Wagner (Olney, Md.) drove in a run for the Blue Hose.
Six different PC players tallied one hit each, including Brad Zebedis (Rock
Hill, S.C.), who extended his team-best hitting streak to seven games.
Starting pitcher Bud Jeter (Columbia, S.C.) offered a solid
appearance on the mound, allowing four hits and four runs in four innings of
work. The freshman also struck out and walked three apiece but took the loss to
move to 5-6 on the year.
South Carolina starter Steven Neff earned the win to go to
3-1. Peter Mooney and Christian Walker led the Gamecocks with two RBI each.
South Carolina drew first blood, taking a 1-0 lead in the
first inning. A walk and a double put two on and a sacrifice fly from Brady
Thomas brought Scott Wingo home from third, putting the Gamecocks ahead by one
run.
The Gamecocks picked up one run in the second on a one-out
single, but Jeter would limit the damage to the single run by forcing two
flyouts to end the inning with no further scoring.
PC found its first run in the top of the fifth to cut the
South Carolina lead in half. Brandon Paul (Augusta, Ga.) lifted a double to
right field under a diving Robert Beary and came home when Wagner fought off a
1-2 pitch over first base for an RBI single. The score gave Wagner his 12th
RBI of the season.
South Carolina responded to the PC run by scoring two of its
own in the bottom of the frame. Two baserunners forced Jeter out of the game
and the Gamecocks used a Walker single off of reliever Chad White
(Suwanee, Ga.) to plate two and go ahead by a 4-1 margin. White recovered,
however, blowing a fastball past a swinging Evan Marzilli with the bases loaded
to end the inning.
The sixth inning saw the Gamecocks score once more by taking
advantage of a double, error and a sacrifice fly to manufacture a run for a 5-1
lead.
The Blue Hose offense received a seventh-inning jolt in the
form of Kenny Bryant (Goose Creek, S.C.), who replaced Gabe Grammer (Irmo,
S.C.) and launched a double to deep centerfield with one away. Unfortunately
for PC, Bryant could not find a way home and South Carolina stayed ahead by
four.
PC threatened again in the eighth, putting two on with one
out and prompting the Gamecocks to send John Taylor to the mound. Taylor
managed to end the frame without a PC run, however, keeping South Carolina's
lead at 5-1.
The Gamecocks added one more run in the eighth on a solo
home run by Mooney to go up 6-1 and win by that score.
The Blue Hose head to North Charleston, S.C., this weekend
for a three-game Big South Conference series against Charleston Southern. The
series begins on Friday at 2 p.m.
