Gamecocks eliminate UF

HOOVER | A day after blowing a four-run lead in the ninth inning, South Carolina scored five runs in the second inning Thursday and made it stand in an 11-3 victory over Florida in the second round of the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament.

South Carolina advances to play Vanderbilt at 3 p.m. today. The loss knocked Florida out of the double-elimination tournament.

The Gamecocks, who lost 5-4 to LSU in Wednesday’s opening-round after leading 4-0 in the ninth, jumped out to an early lead Thursday when they sent 11 batters to the plate in the second inning and scored five runs on five hits and three walks.

Parker Bangs, Harley Lail and Resse Havens each had an RBI hit to chase Florida starter Billy Bullock (4-4) after only 11⁄3 innings.

Florida, which had scored a run in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly by Brandon McArthur, added runs in the third and fifth innings to narrow the gap to 5-3. McArthur delivered another RBI on a single to center field in the third, and Cole Figueroa had an RBI single in the fifth.

James Darnell led off the bottom of the fifth with a double, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored on a fielder’s choice ground out by Phil Disher to give South Carolina a 6-3 lead.

The Gamecocks blew the game open in the eighth with another five-run inning, capped by Justin Smoak’s three-run homer. It was the 60th home run of his career.

South Carolina starter Nick Godwin (7-3) gave up three runs in seven innings and struck out seven to pick up the win. Mike Cisco pitched two scoreless innings to close the game.