Brown vs. No. 3 South Carolina, game 3 final score: Gamecocks blank Bears 1-0

This game didn't have the offensive firepower of the past two, but the Gamecocks did just enough to sweep the Bears, beating them 1-0 Sunday afternoon at Carolina Stadium.

Frankly, neither offense was particularly exciting to watch today. USC gave away a few easy outs by getting caught stealing twice in as many innings, and both teams squandered scoring chances by leaving runners on base at the end of an inning.

South Carolina finally got on the board in the fourth inning. Grayson Greiner led things off with a walk, Kyle Martin and Connor Bright knocked back-to-back singles, and Elliott Caldwell came through with an RBI sac fly, giving them a 1-0 lead.

The Gamecocks had a chance to do more damage, but again left runners stranded. They had an opportunity to pad the lead in the sixth, too, but couldn't capitalize. Fortunately, Brown couldn't get anything going either, and the score held for the rest of the game.

Gamecocks starter Wil Crowe worked eight innings and allowed four hits, no runs, walked one batter and struck out nine. He also retired 10 straight batters through the middle innings.

Allow me to remind you that he is just a true freshman. Crowe earned the win and improves to 3-0. Joel Seddon pitched a perfect ninth inning and got his fifth save of the season.

Christian Taugner tossed seven innings for Brown and gave up seven hits, one run, issued two walks and tallied five Ks. He takes the loss and falls to 0-1.

Martin, Marcus Mooney, and Weber Pike all had two hits, while Caldwell notched Carolina's only extra base hit of the day.

USC was without both Max Schrock (ankle) and Joey Pankake (hamstring) today. Schrock missed the entire series, while Pankake left during the second game of yesterday's doubleheader. Hopefully both will be healed up by the time conference play starts next weekend.

The victory is the Gamecocks' third shut out win in a row, and it's the second time in a month they've blanked teams for three straight games. Winning three consecutive shutouts had only been done two times in school history before this squad, so needless to say, the pitching staff is killing it so far this season (and the offense hasn't been too bad, either).

South Carolina  is now 15-0, while Brown drops to 0-3. The Gamecocks will be back in action on Tuesday night, when they host Furman. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.