Greenville, N.C. - Justin Dalles and Adam Matthews each homered twice including a grand slam home run from Dalles and starting pitcher Blake Cooperhurled his third complete game of the season as South Carolina defeatedEast Carolina 12-2 on Saturday evening at the Greenville Regional atClark-LeClair Stadium. South Carolina improves to 40-21 on the year,the team's 10th straight season with 40-plus victories under head coachRay Tanner.East Carolina falls to 43-18 for the year.
South Carolina will returnto action on Sunday evening at 6 p.m. and will face the winner oftomorrow afternoon's elimination game between East Carolina-Binghamton.Live audio broadcast is available at GamecocksOnline.com and on theGamecock Radio Network.
Cooper has been stellar in the month of May as he picked up hisfourth win in five starts for the month. He allowed two runs on 14 hitswith six strikeouts and two walks. With the victory he is now 9-4 onthe year. East Carolina starter Seth Maness took the loss and is now9-2 for the season. Maness allowed six runs on 11 hits in 6.2 inningswith three strikeouts and one walk.
"We are very fortunate to be able to win tonight," said South Carolina head coach Ray Tanner."East Carolina has a very potent offense and they had runnerseverywhere early in the game. I don't think I've ever been part of asituation so many that times that early in the game where we were ableto get off the hook. You've got to give Blake (Cooper) a tremendousamount of credit for pitching out of some pickles. He's a cagey veteranand its hart to get off the hook like he did. We are very fortunate. Wehad some big hits and we played a very nice game against them."
South Carolina busted out to a 2-0 lead in the first two innings. Whit Merrifield opened the game with a base hit and after stealing second base would score after consecutive ground outs by DeAngelo Mack and Jackie Bradley, Jr.to second base. Bradley's ground out was Carolina's first RBI of thegame. That lead increased to 2-0 in the top of the second inning asMatthews delivered with a solo home run. Matthews drilled the firstpitch he saw from ECU starter Seth Maness over the left centerfieldwall to give the Gamecocks a two-run cushion.
Cooper then kept East Carolina at bay as he worked throughseveral chances for the Pirates without allowing an ECU runner toscore. The bases were loaded in the third when Cooper rolled DustinHarrington into a double play to end the frame and they were full inthe fourth and fifth with two outs but he was able to stop the momentumwith fly ball outs against Stephen Batts and Jared Avchen to rightfielder Jackie Bradley, Jr.
The Gamecocks scratched three more across in the top of the sixth toincrease the advantage to 5-0. Bradley would start the frame with abase hit to right field. With one out and a 3-1 count to Justin Dalles,the game took a turn as the Gamecock catcher looked to signal for timeagainst Maness. He did not get the time and stepped back into thebatter box and grooved Maness' pitch for a two-run homer to leftcenter. The home run was Dalles' 13th of the season. Carolina added asingle run following Dalles' blast as Matthews doubled and scored on atwo-out RBI base hit by Bobby Haney.
With a 5-0 lead, South Carolina broke open the game with a single runin the seventh followed by a six spot in the eighth inning. Dallesdrove in five of the seven runs with a RBI single in the sixth followedup by a grand slam homer in the seventh inning. Matthews also homeredfor a second time in the seventh and DeAngelo Macktallied a RBI double. East Carolina broke the shutout in the eighthinning on a pinch hit two-run homer to right field by Corey Thompson.
Dalles' 4-for-5 game with seven RBI led the day at the platefor Carolina. Dalles' seven RBI total is a season-high for a Gamecockplayer this year and the most since Justin Smoaktallied nine on April 15, 2008. He is now up to 14 home runs on theyear as well. Matthews also was 4-for-5 with three runs scored and twoRBI. He is now up to five home runs for the season. The two-homer gamesby Dalles and Matthews is the first time a pair of Gamecocks have hittwo or more homers in a game since May 10, 2006 when Andrew Crisp and Robbie Grinestaff tallied a pair of multi-homer games in a 15-6 win over Georgia in the NCAA Super Regional.
"This afternoon, the coaches and I met and we were trying to figure outwho we were trying to match up with Maness as a DH," said Tanner. "Onescouting report told us to go with a right-handed hitter. Matthews canrun. Adam is good and he can get around the bases a little so wedecided to go with him and he had a big night for us."
Eight of nine Gamecock starters had at least one hit with allnine starters reaching base. Mack, Bradley and Haney also had two hitsapiece. Merrifield extended his hitting streak to 12 games. SouthCarolina finished with a 17-14 hit advantage over East Carolina. TrentWhitehead, Devin Harris, Drew Schieber and Jared Avchen all had twohits apiece for the Pirates.
"We're in the best position, but by no means are comfortable orrelaxing," said Tanner. "We are playing in Greenville, North Carolina.We know we've got a lot of work to do ahead of us."
