Dyson delivers for USC

A couple of hours after receiving the news of Curtis Johnson’s season-ending shoulder injury, South Carolina received a shot in the arm from the performance of Sam Dyson.

The redshirt freshman pitched seven innings against the nation’s highest scoring team to lead the Gamecocks to a 5-3 victory Wednesday against the College of Charleston at Sarge Frye Field.

Dyson had pitched only 3æð innings all season, but he held the Cougars hitless until the fifth and left after allowing three runs on three hits. He struck out eight and walked four and left after 101 pitches.

“It felt good (to pitch that long),” Dyson said. “My pitch count was down throughout the game. I was on a 75-pitch count last week and got to that point before the fourth, so it was a lot better tonight.”

In the wake of loss of Johnson, Dyson made his case for more work.

“Outings like that will catapult him to certainly a better, bigger role for us,” USC coach Ray Tanner said. “I think we might flip him to Tuesday next week and give him a start there and have him available for the weekend. If he can repeat a little bit next week of what he did tonight, you have to have him available for SEC play.”

Brandon Todd pitched the ninth to earn his second save.

With Dyson setting the pace on the mound, USC (16-6) had a couple of clutch hits to build on its early lead.

The Gamecocks jumped to a 3-0 lead in the third. Phil Disher walked to leadoff the frame and one out later, Reese Havens crushed his team-leading seventh home run near the scoreboard in right-center. Andrew Crisp, who extended his hitting streak to 15 games, added a two-out RBI single.

College of Charleston finally got to Dyson in the fifth. Dyson had retired 11 in a row before opening the inning with a walk to Michael Kohn. Brandon Sizemore followed that with the first Cougars hit to put runners on first and second. After a sacrifice moved the runners up, Stuart Haywood singled to center to drive in both runs.

But USC answered back with a two of its own in the bottom half of the inning. Kyle Enders’ two-out, two-run single extended the lead to 5-2.

“It could’ve been anybody in the lineup to get those hits, but it was nice to come up with a couple of timely ones tonight after (Tuesday) night,” Crisp said of the Gamecocks 4-2 loss.

The Cougars (16-8) scratched a final run off Dyson in the sixth inning before Craig Thomas and Todd finished off the four-hitter.

“After losing on Tuesday, you just feel like you need to get the win on Wednesday going into a conference weekend,” Tanner said. “I thought we were very good tonight. I’m pleased to be able to win.”