Bats go cold, as Carolina falls to Furman Tuesday

COLUMBIA – The University of South Carolina baseball team fell to Furman in midweek action, 6-4, on Tuesday night (Feb. 27) at Founders Park.

South Carolina struck first in the bottom of the second inning. Madison Stokes and LT Tolbert started with back-to-back hits and both runners were able to advance on a balk. This led to walks for Jonah Bride and Hunter Taylor, which drove in the first run of the game.

Furman immediately answered in the top of the third inning with two runs of their own on a single from Ben Anderson that ended up scoring Bret Huebner after an error in the outfield. A sacrifice fly from Jake Crawford gave Furman a 2-1 lead.

South Carolina had a quick answer in the bottom of the third with a solo home run by Madison Stokes in his first game back from injury, knotting the score at 2-2.

Carmen Mlodzinski handled business in the fifth and sixth innings, but the bats came alive for Furman in the top of seventh. Landon Kay started it off with a single to center field and then Griffith tripled to left, giving Furman a 4-2 lead. A sacrifice fly from Anderson followed that, putting Furman up three.

South Carolina answered big in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run shot to right field by Carlos Cortes, cutting the Furman lead to 5-4.

The Paladins added insurance in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI double from Jabari Richards. Mlodzinski took the loss after relieving for Logan Chapman who started the game. Mlodzinski struck out three in 2.1 innings of relief, allowing a hit and two runs. Chapman went four innings in his start, striking out three and allowing three hits and two runs.

USC Athletics contributed to the writing of this article.