Gamecocks snap losing streak, push past Davidson for midweek win
Justin Row is looking to make the most of his opportunities. If he continues to hit like he did in South Carolina’s 5-4 victory against Davidson on Tuesday night, which snapped the Gamecocks' five-game losing streak, he’s going to find plenty more chances.
Row went 3-for-3 with a home run, double and single, driving in two runs and scoring two more. Not bad considering he was mostly in the lineup because of the rash of injuries South Carolina has absorbed the past couple of weeks.
TJ Hopkins missed his fourth consecutive game with a hand injury, and Madison Stokes missed his second game in a row with a hamstring injury. Noah Campbell joined the list of regulars in the dugout with an injured hand as well.
Row made the most of it.
His two-run home run, his third of the season, in the sixth inning proved to be the difference. Hunter Taylor broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning when he belted a solo home, his fifth home run of the season.
“If (Row) doesn’t play like he did, we don’t win the game,” South Carolina coach Mark Kingston said. “He’s a guy that will continue to play even, probably, when all our guys get healthy again. That’s a guy we’ll probably have in the lineup on a fairly consistent basis.”
Row was making just his 11th start of the season, but he approaches every game the same way.
“I have a regular routine that I stick to,” Row said. “If my name isn’t in the lineup, I’ll be ready to go in if Coach needs me. If it’s in the lineup, I will be ready to go the same way.”
It was a much-needed boost for the Gamecocks. In the five-game losing streak, USC averaged 2.6 runs and just more than six hits per game. With Tennessee coming to down on Thursday to start a three-game SEC series, success against a Davidson team that reached a Super Regional a season ago is, hopefully, the jump start Kingston is looking for.
“It’s good to win a baseball game on a Tuesday night when three of your top of the order guys are out of the game and you throw all new pitchers, four out of five freshmen,” Kingston said. “They were in a Super Regional last year for a reason, and they returned a majority of their team, so that was a quality win for us.”
“We absolutely needed that after what we’ve been going through lately. That was a gut-check, no question about it, and the guys did enough to win.”
Logan Chapman pitched five innings to improve to 2-0. The freshman right-hander allowed two runs on three hits with six strikeouts and two walks.
“(Chapman) only had two walks in five innings,” Kingston said. “I thought that was his strongest outing all year. We’ll take that from Logan every time.”
Eddy Demurias recorded the final six outs for the save. The Wildcats (15-9) added two runs in the eighth off of John Gilreath, but Demurias closed the door. He stranded two in the eighth and closed things out with a double play in the ninth.
South Carolina (14-11) scratched across a couple of unearned runs in the early going. They jumped on top 1-0 in the second inning when Jonah Bride and Justin Row opened the frame with back-to-back singles. Chris Cullen grounded to third for the force out but the throw across the diamond was wild, allowing Row and Cullen to move into scoring position with one out.
Riley Hogan followed with a RBI groundout to first.
The Gamecocks added a run in the fourth when LT Tolbert led off with a walk and scored when Row's double in the left field corner was misplayed to make it 2-0.
Davidson tied it in the fifth. The first two batters reached on a walk and single and moved into scoring position after a Chapman balk. Zach Nussbaum drove in the first run with a ground out to second, and Alex Mardiney followed with an RBI single.
This story was originally published March 27, 2018 at 9:57 PM with the headline "Gamecocks snap losing streak, push past Davidson for midweek win."