The Citadel shuts out South Carolina, earns season sweep vs. Gamecocks
South Carolina baseball’s misfortune vs. mid-major teams in midweek games is still a thing.
Coach Monte Lee and the Gamecocks lost to The Citadel 4-0 at home Tuesday in Founders Park. South Carolina had three hits in the game and, with the defeat, has now lost five times against mid-major opponents in a midweek game this season.
“The Citadel just played a better baseball game than we did tonight. That’s the bottom line,” Lee said.
USC is now 22-24 overall and heads to Baton Rouge for a road SEC series with LSU this weekend. The Gamecocks are 7-14 in SEC play.
The Citadel clinches season series
South Carolina beat The Citadel in the two games the teams played against each other last year. This season, however, the Bulldogs got the better of the Gamecocks.
Tuesday’s win makes The Citadel 2-0 against South Carolina this season. The Citadel (22-22) beat South Carolina 8-3 in Charleston earlier this season. It’s the first time since 2009 The Citadel has beaten USC twice in a season.
The Gamecocks won both games last season by a combined score of 13-1 but lost this year’s series by a combined score of 12-3. South Carolina leads the all-time series 145-52-1.
The win also marks the first time The Citadel has beaten South Carolina in Columbia since 2018.
Offensive struggles for the Gamecocks
South Carolina struggled to get momentum going at the plate Tuesday.
The Gamecocks failed to record a hit in the first three innings of the game thanks to solid work on the mound from Citadel starter Trip Brown. The junior put together four scoreless innings of work for the Bulldogs and allowed one hit.
“Their starter was better than our starter,” Lee said. “He got through four innings. He threw a lot of fastballs and we couldn’t catch up to it. He was better...We didn’t have an answer for Trip Brown tonight. He was outstanding and he deserves the credit.”
It looked like South Carolina might break through for a moment in the fourth. Tyler Bak drew a leadoff walk and Talmadge LeCroy followed that up with a single. Unfortunately, the inning came to an end after the Gamecocks had three straight fly-outs.
The same happened in the seventh inning with the Gamecocks trailing 3-0. South Carolina started the inning with a walk and hit batter then recorded three straight pop-outs to end the inning. The Gamecocks also left two runners stranded in the bottom of the ninth down 4-0.
“We had some opportunities to score, just a couple of them, and we just didn’t,” Lee said. “We didn’t get the job done.”
The loud outs were the story of the night for South Carolina batters, who didn’t really have trouble making contact in the game. Instead, the Gamecocks struggled to deposit their batted balls into open spaces in the field.
“We put the ball in play, they just executed pitches,” Lee said. “I think at the end of the day, that’s what I saw. They just didn’t give us anything. They threw the ball over the plate. They made plays behind their pitching staff, quite honestly, that’s kind of what they’ve done all year.”
4 is the magic number
In poetic fashion, The Citadel scored four runs the last time the Bulldogs beat USC in Columbia.
The Bulldogs got the scoring started in the third inning and took an early 2-0 lead. The Citadel sent seven batters to the plate in the inning and recorded two hits. Designated hitter Christian Stratis delivered the two runs in the third inning on a two-RBI double.
Stratis gave The Citadel some insurance in the seventh inning when he sent an RBI single into left. That gave the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead. The Citadel added an insurance run in the top of the ninth after an RBI single from Michael Gibson, extending its lead to 4-0.
The Citadel totaled 11 hits in the game and drew seven walks in the game.
“We were fortunate to only give up four runs,” Lee said. “...We didn’t do a great job of pounding strike zone.”
South Carolina baseball’s upcoming schedule
- Friday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m. at LSU (SEC Network+)
- Saturday, May 2 at 7 p.m. at LSU (SEC Network+)
- Sunday, May 3 at 3 p.m. at LSU (SEC Network+)
This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 9:52 PM.
