A Stone-cold gem: USC upends No. 11 Ole Miss thanks to complete game
If South Carolina needed a hero to step forward to help turn the fortunes around in the second half of the SEC schedule, they got it from Brandon Stone on Thursday night.
The sophomore right-hander pitched a complete-game gem to propel the Gamecocks to a 3-2 victory over No. 11 Ole Miss Thursday night at Founders Park.
“I felt pretty good from the beginning,” Stone said. “My bullpen this week with Coach (Terry) Rooney, we really worked on getting the ball down again. I kept it down and made them get themselves out.”
South Carolina coach Paul Mainieri agreed that it was an efficient night from Stone. The Gamecocks improved to 22-17 (3-13 SEC).
“The only time he got hurt is when he threw off-speed pitches and left them up in the zone,” Mainieri said. “I’m not sure he gave up a hit on his fastball. It was sinking but in the strike zone with good velocity all night.”
To show how surprising the outing was, Stone didn’t pitch at all last weekend at Texas A&M and hadn’t been on the mound since April 6. He was roughed up in his previous four outings in SEC play, going 0-4 with a 10.67 ERA.
But it was different from the outset against the Rebels. Stone, who is from Shawnee Mission in Kansas, threw a six-pitch first inning and was in control from that point forward. He did allow two solo home runs to Mississippi (27-12, 9-7), but thanks to three double plays by his defense, he only threw 86 pitches, 61 of them for strikes.
The Gamecocks defense turned double plays in the fourth, seventh and ninth innings. The one in the ninth came after the Rebels got the leadoff batter on board on an error. Stone then induced a grounder to Jordan Carrion at second for the 4-6-3 double play.
Stone allowed six hits with four strikeouts and no walks in his gem. He then got Rebels cleanup hitter Judd Utermark to ground out to Scobey at third on his sixth pitch of the final frame.
Stone had fist pumps coming off the mound in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
“If I get a base runner on, I’m talking to Henry (Kaczmar) and Jordan (Carrion) trying to get them to roll it up for me. It saves pitches as you get deeper in the game,” Stone said. “They did absolutely amazing back there.”
“Late in the game, I was trying to keep my team fired up. I was fired up myself. I was hoping to keep the whole team in it.”
South Carolina last got a nine-inning complete game from Brett Kerry against Kentucky in 2021.
It was a game of small ball for the Gamecocks offensively, but it was enough to back the efforts of Stone. South Carolina opened the scoring in the first when Nathan Hall doubled, moved to third on a fly ball and scored on an RBI groundout from Carrion.
The Rebels tied it with a solo home run in the third inning before USC answered back with two runs in the fifth.
Freshmen Beau Hollins and KJ Scobey singled to open the inning and moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt from Dalton Mashore. Gavin Braland, who came into the game with a .143 average, delivered an infield single to score Hollins. Hall followed with an RBI single to make it 3-1.
Hall missed the last two games but led the offense with two hits, a run scored and an RBI.
“We believe in each other. With guys in scoring position, we’re going to do everything we can to score those runs. We got it done tonight,” Hall said.
USC baseball schedule: Upcoming games
- Friday vs. Ole Miss, 4 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Saturday vs. Ole Miss, 2 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Tuesday vs. UNF, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- April 25 at Kentucky, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- April 26 at Kentucky, 4:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- April 27 at Kentucky, 1 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
This story was originally published April 17, 2025 at 9:52 PM.