After two days of high offensive production, the pendulum swung the other way for the Gamecocks on Sunday, but they still managed to sweep over Dayton.
Both teams went without goals until the third round, when South Carolina took the lead 1-0. With an out, Brady Allen found an error, so Braylen Wimmer and Wes Clarke walked to load the bases. Unfortunately, the Gamecocks only managed to run out of the situation, and it came on a fly from David Mendham. The Flyers tied things up in the next entry, after also loading the bases and Jared Howell choosing.
Although both teams had several chances to score, the tie lasted until the eighth round, when the USC finally managed to capitalize. Colin Burgess walked to start, advanced in a Jeff Heinrich sack and scored in a double from George Callil to put the home team 2-1. Then, with two eliminations, Noah Meyers and Clarke left, and Mendham passed again, this time with a triple of base elimination.
Gamecocks holder Julian Bostic had a good start and set the school record for consecutive eliminations with eight, which he won in the third entry. Things changed after that, however, and he ended up working only a total of 3.1 innings, not allowing for hitting and running while walking four hitters and eliminating nine. Daniel Lloyd, Travis Luensmann and Brett Kerry agreed to go the rest of the way to South Carolina, and Kerry took the victory, making it 1-0. Dayton’s reliever, Andrew Zabka, took the defeat and is 0-1. Mendham, Burgess and Callil had two hits in the game, and Mendham recorded RBI every day.
With the sweep, Gamecocks are now 3-0 in the season, while Flyers are 0-3. USC will be back in action on Tuesday when it faces Winthrop. The first performance is scheduled for 4 pm in Columbia.