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After getting off to an early lead but watching it disappear, the Gamecocks rallied in the sixth inning on Saturday to earn another win over the visiting Volunteers.
Tennessee was on the board first in this game, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. South Carolina promptly answered by scoring four runs in the bottom of the inning, though. Gene Cone led off with a double thanks to a Vols error, then Dom Thompson-Williams walked with two outs, and Jonah Bride came through with an RBI single to tie the game. Chris Cullen followed with a two-run double, and TJ Hopkins tallied an RBI single to make it 4-1 in favor of the Gamecocks.
The lead diminished in the next inning, though, because Tennessee scored two more runs on back-to-back singles. They could have done more damage, but Marcus Mooney and DC Arendas turned a great double play to prevent that from happening. The Vols did tie things up at 4-4 in the fifth inning, though.
South Carolina regained the lead in the sixth inning. Cullen and Hopkins took back-to-back walks to start things off, Marcus Mooney singled with one out to get one run in, and then he participated in quite a rundown to get the second run of the inning home and make it 6-4.
The final run of the game came in the eighth inning, when LT Tolbert got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Starter Braden Webb had another solid outing, working 7.1 innings and giving up seven hits, four runs, walking two batters and striking out 10. Reed Scott also pitched in this game. Webb got the win and is now 7-1, while Reagan earned the save, his first this season.
Winning this series is particularly important considering that 1) Tennessee isn't that good and 2) Alex Destino has not played due to injury and John Jones, who is normally very good at baseball, has been pretty invisible this weekend.
With the win, South Carolina improves 27-5 overall and 9-2 in the SEC, while Tennessee Tennessee falls to 18-13 overall and 3-8 in conference play. The Gamecocks will go for the sweep on Sunday afternoon, with first pitch set for 1:30 p.m. at Founder's Park. Adam Hill will start on the mound for the home team.