Mashore's early grand slam opens big scoring night in South Carolina's run-rule win

It hasn’t been the senior season that Dalton Mashore had hoped for. He transferred to South Carolina from Saint Mary’s, intending to have a good year of playing in the SEC. But it hasn’t worked out that way.

Coming into this week, Mashore had only played in 14 games for the Gamecocks this season. He blamed himself for some of that. He also had been dealing with a hip injury that kept him out of action for weeks.

Now feeling 100 percent healthy again, Mashore returned to the starting lineup on Tuesday and wasted no time making an impact. In his first at-bat, he hit a grand slam that got the scoring started in South Carolina’s 13-3 win over USC Upstate.

Mashore, who still hadn’t hit his first home run as a Gamecock, got every bit of a 1-0 pitch over the middle of the plate and sent it out beyond the tall trees in left centerfield. These were the offense’s first runs since the fifth inning of Saturday’s 11-4 loss to Mississippi State.

“I’m happy to have the opportunity and grateful,” Mashore said. “What better situation I could be put in with the bases loaded in my first at-bat? Just trying to stay loose and calm and just do the job. So I squared up the ball pretty well.”

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That would be Mashore’s only hit of the night as he went 1-for-3 in his first game back since March 25. He admittedly hoped this could be the start of him earning his starting right fielder job back to which head coach Paul Mainieri said, “I think he’s earned the job back.”

“I knew we were facing a left-handed pitcher tonight. I know we’re going to face three left-handed pitchers this weekend,” Mainieri said. “I just thought it was a good time to get him back in there. He’s feeling good. … Mashore is one of the best outfielders I’ve ever had, coaching-wise, defensively. He plays right field as good as anybody, so I just feel like that’s an asset for him out there in right field.”

With Mashore back in right field, this slid Ethan Petry over to left field for the first time in his college career. The results in the field were mixed, but he made up for it with a two-hit night, including a two-run homer in the second.

This was Petry’s 53rd career home run at South Carolina, which now puts him 10 homers away from breaking Justin Smoak’s program record of 62 career bombs.

The offense went quiet over the next few innings but broke out for six runs in the sixth. The rally started after the Gamecocks opened the frame with three straight singles to load the bases.

After Nathan Hall drove in a run with a walk, Jordan Carrion delivered the big blow with a bases-clearing double. KJ Scobey capped off the scoring with a two-run single through the left side. Four of the hits in the inning came with two strikes, something which Mainieri was happy to see.

“I think it’s a positive sign. I mean, we had a couple of poor at-bats in that inning, I believe, as well,” he said. “But you can’t do it every time. I’m just glad to see that we had some good two-strike approaches.”

For most of the evening, the pitching staff did its job in keeping USC Upstate off the board. Tyler Pitzer and Parker Marlatt each worked out of bases-loaded jams during their outings. Jackson Soucie gave up a two-run homer in the fourth, which was the only blemish in his three innings of work.

With a 10-run lead and a chance to win in the seventh, Aydin Palmer surrendered a run on two hits to keep the game alive for the Spartans. But Cayden Gaskin, who came in to pinch-hit for Hall, got that run back with a walk-off solo homer in the bottom of the inning.

“That was a really cool moment for him,” Mainieri said. “So it’s a good win for us to get our 20th win of the year. I didn’t think it would take this long to get to 20 wins, but at least we got there. So we’ll keep moving forward.”

Up next: South Carolina will head back on the road to begin a three-game series with Texas A&M starting Thursday night in College Station. First pitch is at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

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