The No. 4 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks (16-4) (2-1) defeated the Rhode Island Rams (9-8) by the score of 17-8 Wednesday night at Carolina Stadium.
After beating up on College of Charleston Tuesday night, 24-4, the Gamecocks continued their hot hitting and for the second straight night South Carolina had all nine starters had at least one hit and eight of the nine Gamecock hitters batted in at least one run.
Reliever Jose Mata (2-0) recorded the win for South Carolina, he threw four innings and allowed only one run on two hits, no walks, striking out two Rhode Island batters. Rhode Island starter Brian Bodjiak (2-1) took the loss for the Rams allowing five runs on two hits and three walks, facing only five batters.
Carolina jumped out to an early 6-0 lead in the first inning on the strength of two RBI doubles by Peter Mooney and Brady Thomas, as well as a two-run homer from Jackie Bradley, Jr., his team-leading sixth of the year. Robert Beary also added an RBI hit for the Gamecocks in the first inning.
Rhode Island struck back in the top of the second, scoring three runs on a bases loaded walk by Dan Haverstick, scoring Tom Columbe. A fielding error by reliever Jose Mata helped Rhode Island tack on another two runs, cutting the deficit in half, making it 6-3.
The Gamecocks, again, batted around in the bottom of the second to add four more runs to their total, making it 10-3. Back-to-back walks to begin the frame gave way to a two-out rally to end the inning. Bradley, Jr. and Christian Walker both reached and scored on an RBI double by Beary and an RBI bunt single from Evan Marzilli, respectively. After a walk to Scott Wingo that loaded the bases, Adam Matthews delivered an RBI single to left field plating two more Gamecocks, giving them a seven run lead.
Rhode Island was able to scratch one across in the fifth on a two-out RBI double by Ty Muller, scoring Jeff Cammans. The Gamecocks, however, responded with two more runs in the bottom half of the fifth on an Adrian Morales solo home run and a Scott Wingo RBI single to make it 15-4. The lead extended to 17-4 when Morales came through with an RBI double and Walker scored on a wild pitch. Rhode Island was able to score another four runs over the eighth and ninth innings to make the final score 17-8.
South Carolina finished with 19 hits and have now outscored their opponents 41-12 in the last two nights. Robert Beary finished the game with a career-high four RBI and tied his career-high with four hits and scored three runs.
South Carolina will head to Gainesville, FL this weekend to take on the top-ranked Florida Gators in a three-game weekend series starting Friday.
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