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After today's Senior Day festivities honoring Brison Celek and Hunter Privette, the Gamecocks won a low-scoring game to take the series against the visitors from the other Columbia.
The Tigers were first on the board this afternoon, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Josh Lester homered. USC trailed until the third inning, when they tied things up, then took the lead. Patrick Harrington and Marcus Mooney started things off with back-to-back singles, then a sac bunt from Max Schrock allowed them both to advance. Kyle Martin came through with an RBI groundout to knot the score at 1-1, and a Grayson Greiner base hit/Missouri error made it 2-1 in favor of the home team.
The Gamecocks had a chance to blow things open in the next inning, when they had the bases loaded with just one out, but they couldn't capitalize (sigh...) and left all three runners stranded.
Carolina tacked on the final run on the day in the sixth inning. Gene Cone led off with a base hit and made it to second via another Tigers error, then advanced to third on a sac fly from Harrington. With two outs, Schrock knocked an RBI single and bumped the score up to 3-1.
Starter Jack Wynkoop got off to a bit of a rough start, but he settled in nicely after the first few innings. He worked 5.2 innings and allowed five hits, one run, walked one batter, and struck out two. Wynkoop earned the win and is now 7-3. Taylor Widener, Cody Mincey, and Joel Seddon went the rest of the way for Carolina. Seddon got the win, his 14th of the season.
Mizzou starter Peter Fairbanks pitched 6.2 innings and gave up 10 hits, three runs, issued two walks, and tallied two K's. He took the loss and falls to 4-6.
Greiner's hitting streak is now at nine games. Arendas led the Gamecocks at the plate with three hits, while Lester had two to pace the Tigers.
I really wanted to write about how impressive both Cone and Harrington have been these past few weeks, but I did that for Elliott Caldwell earlier in the season and jinxed him, so I won't. Just know that they are both doing very well and should be commended for it.
South Carolina improves to 38-13 overall (15-11 in the SEC), while Missouri drops to 20-29 overall (6-20 in conference play. The Gamecocks will go for the sweep tomorrow, with first pitch scheduled for 1:30 p.m.