Tanner Gets 600th USC Win

Columbia, S.C. (USC SID) — South Carolina belted a season-high five home runsand the Gamecock pitching staff recorded double-digit strikeouts for the 13th timethis season as South Carolina defeated The Citadel 10-1 on Tuesday night atCarolina Stadium. The win marks head coach Ray Tanner’s 600th victoryat South Carolina and his 995th career win. Carolina is now 20-5 on the yearwhile the loss drops The Citadel to 18-7 for the season.Carolina tallied 13 hits in the game including the five home runs, tying a CarolinaStadium record for home runs in a single game. Robert Beary homered andfinished 4-for-5 with a pair of RBI as well as a double. His four hits tied aseason-high by a Gamecock player for hits in a game. Jackie Bradley Jr. also was 3-for-5 with a homer, two runsscored and three RBI. Whit Merrifield had a base hit to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. He has hit safely in 24 of 25 games this year. Jeffery Jones,Michael Roth and Scott Wingo also tallied home runs for the Gamecocks. Jones,Wingo and Merrifield are tied for the team lead with five home runs apiece.Freshman right-hander Colby Holmes earned his first career victory after five innings of work. He allowed just one run on five hits with four strikeouts andone walk. John Taylor hurled two scoreless innings of work with a pair ofstrikeouts, Matt Price pitched a perfect inning of relief and struck out the side andEthan Carter closed the game out with a perfect inning of relief with a strikeout.Holmes is now 1-0 on the year. Citadel starter TJ Clarkson suffered the loss andis now 1-2 on the year. He lasted only 1.1 innings and allowed six runs, fourearned, on four hits with four walks and two strikeouts.”I’m just grateful to be a coach here (at South Carolina),” said head coach RayTanner. “I’ve never made a play, never gotten a hit, never fielded (a ground ball).I’m just grateful for the former players and great coaches (I’ve worked with). I’mjust glad to be in this position.”South Carolina wasted no time getting on the scoreboard with three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Whit Merrifield would reach base to openthe inning on a fielding error by Citadel second baseman Legare Jones. Thatset the stage for Jackie Bradley Jr., who launched a two-run homer overthe wall in center field to put the Gamecocks out in front. They would take a3-0 lead later in the inning as Adam Matthews reached base on a two-out singleand scored on Robert Beary’s two-out RBI double.That lead increased to 6-0 in the bottom of the second inning. Scott Wingo and Whit Merrifield each drew one-outwalks with Bradley driving in his third run of the game with a RBI single that scored Wingo. Merrifield wouldscore on a passed ball to catcher Bryan Altman and with the bases loaded, Adam Matthews walked to score Bradleyand giving the Gamecocks a six-run cushion.Brad Felder put The Citadel on the board in the top of the third inning on a solo home run for the Bulldogs, his fifthhome run of the year. That would be it for the Bulldogs though as Carolina came back with a single run in the sixthinning on Wingo’s homer and three more runs in the seventh with Jones, Beary and Roth all connecting on homeruns.