South Carolina powers past Vanderbilt for series-opening win

A big question entering league play was if South Carolina and its power surge would continue. 

It had through the first four weeks of the year and sure looked like it again Friday night. 

Five players homered in a dominating win over Vanderbilt–including two from Cole Messina while Ethan Petry gets closer to history–in a 14-6 victory on the road. 

“Going on the road in this league is very tough, especially against a team ranked in the top five,” Mark Kingston said. “I’m really pleased with our effort, our pitching, offense, defense and everything.” 

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Things were nip and tuck through the first five innings before South Carolina blew things open with five runs in the sixth.

The Gamecocks (30-4, 10-2 SEC) would chase starter Bryce Cunningham after a tie-breaking home run and a walk to Messina. 

For Petry, it was home run No. 17 on the year, which ties him with Justin Smoak for the most home runs by a freshman in program history.

“I’m out of words,” Messina said.

That opened the floodgates for the Gamecocks, who started the inning with six straight hitters reaching base. 

Carson Hornung and Evan Stone each pitched up RBI singles in the inning while Michael Braswell busted things open with a bases-clearing, two-run triple.

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It was the second of two RBI hits for him on the day. He also hit a game-tying solo homer in the fifth inning.

“That was the first one in a while. I think over a year,” he said. “The feeling of getting the barrel on the ball helps.” 

That was enough to give Will Sanders (3-1, 5.28 ERA) his first win in SEC play. Outside of one nightmare inning, Sanders looked the part of a Friday starter, giving up four runs on five hits over five innings. 

All four runs and three of those five hits came in the second inning where things unraveled after two quick outs.

He’d give up a walk and a single before a game-tying double. Vanderbilt took a brief lead after that with another walk followed by another double. 

Sanders settled in after that, giving up a walk and a single in the third while pitching two clean innings to end his outing. 

“After that four-spot in the second, my big thing was just to keep it right there. Keep the team in the game, speed it up and don’t have big, long innings. The sinker really helped me early in counts to get them to ground out,” Sanders said.

“My big thing was to keep it at four, go as long as I can and give it to the next guy.”

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The Gamecocks put things on cruise control in the seventh while notching some great two-out hitting.

After Petry got hit, Gavin Casas also roped a first-pitch double to right. Talmadge LeCroy would drive both home, worm-burning a single through the left side.

Carson Hornung put the final nail in the coffin. The lefty mashed a towering two-run homer over the monster wall in left field. South Carolina scored in five straight innings starting in the fourth. 

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Eight of the Gamecocks’ nine starters picked up hits Friday while eight drove in at least one run.

The bottom of the South Carolina order combined to go 7-for-14 with four runs scored while driving in seven. The trio–Hornung, Braswell and Stone–finished with a double, triple and two homers.

“That says one through nine we’re tough outs. There’s no break. That’s what makes us such a great team. Everyone has great at-bats, everyone can go yard at any time,” Braswell said. “That’s how our team’s built and we can succeed that way.” 

A Vanderbilt team that came in as one of the best pitching staffs in the SEC allowed 14 hits, walked four and also gave up a season-high 14 runs.

“It’s just what we do. We grind on good pitchers. The guy who threw for them tonight had good stuff and had great success,” Kingston said. “But we just do what we do. We have talented hitters that took advantage of mistakes and you saw the results.” 

Up next: Game two of the series is Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET (2 p.m. CT) with Jack Mahoney (3-0, 3.12 ERA) getting the start while Vanderbilt has yet to announce a starter. SEC Network Plus will televise the game. 

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