The South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 5-0 in Charlotte behind a dominant pitching performance for the team’s fourth shutout of the season.
The Gamecocks had five pitchers take the mound. The pitchers did not walk any Tar Heel batters, and of the 104 total pitches that they threw, 72 were strikes.
The first three South Carolina pitchers allowed North Carolina six hits through the first seven innings before the Tar Heels' bats fell silent in the final two frames.
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Matthew Becker started on the mound for the Gamecocks. He pitched the first three innings, allowing only two hits and no runs while striking out four of the 11 batters he faced.
Freshman right-handed pitcher Eli Jerzembeck, a Charlotte native, took over during the top of the fourth inning and pitched the next three innings. He allowed three hits and registered two strikeouts over twelve North Carolina batters.
Fifth-year right-handed pitcher Nick Proctor entered in the seventh inning, allowing one hit, a double, which was the Tar Heels' final baserunner of the night.
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Eli Jones and redshirt sophomore right-handed pitcher Cade Austin secured the last two innings for the Gamecocks with shutdown pitching.
Jones pitched the eighth inning, retiring the only three batters he faced, all via strikeout. Austin closed the final inning, facing three batters and not allowing a hit, run or walk.
While the pitching was consistently strong, the Gamecock bats took a while to warm up. In the first six innings, the team only managed two hits and no runs against North Carolina pitching.
The offensive for South Carolina came alive in the seventh inning when senior catcher Jonathan French got his seventh RBI of the season with a double that scored sophomore infielder Michael Braswell.
Sophomore outfielder Evan Stone followed French’s lead, notching the team’s second double in a row, which allowed French to score and gave Stone his ninth RBI of the season.
Stone finished his night as the most productive hitter in the Gamecock order, going 2-3 in his at-bats with the RBI on his final stat line.
In the eighth inning, junior first baseman Gavin Casas, freshman outfielder Ethan Petry and sophomore catcher Cole Messina each crossed the plate, increasing the South Carolina to the final 5-0 score. Messina and sophomore catcher/infielder Talmadge LeCroy were also each credited with an RBI in the inning.
In addition to the five runs, the Gamecocks finished with eight hits and no errors while the Tar Heels had no runs, six hits and no errors. Both teams left six men on base.
South Carolina (27-3, 8-1 SEC) will now shift focus to hosting No. 1 LSU for a three-game SEC series on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The first game will be Thursday at 7 p.m. on SEC Network+.