The Sarge

TOP 9 - Bloop single to right to lead off the inning. Two-hole hitter Mishu up. He pops out lazily to center for the first out. Meyers out to the mound, but it's just for a little chat. Roth now up to 100 pitches. Three-hole hitter Mulroy singles to left to put two on. Roth uncorks and uncatchable wild pitch. Bounced way in the right-handed batters box. Two in scoring position now. Ground ball to short. High throw from Bright, but Walker with the stretch. Runner scores. Runner on second with two down. Evan Beal coming in to pitch looking for his first career save. Beal quickly ahead in the count 0-2. He gets Alberts swinging to end the game. FINAL: Carolina 2 - Princeton 1. W: Roth (2-0) S: Beal (1) HR: Martin (1). Marzilli was 3-4 with 3 doubles. Roth struck out 10 in 8.2 innings.

BOTTOM 8 - Another great play by the SS making a diving play up the middle and strong throw to get Erik Payne for the first out of the inning. Bright takes a walk and he's on base for the second time tonight. Marzilli doubles off the right field wall to give him three two-baggers on the night. It ties a school record. Been accomplished 25 times. Second and third, one out, English up. Chases more high heat and falls behind in the count 0-2. Tries to check his swing on 0-2 fastball out of the zone but can't. That's 3Ks for him tonight. Walker flies out to center and leaves two more stranded. That's 13 total on the night. Roth back out there to finish what he started. Gamecocks lead 2-0.

TOP 8 - Roth gets a lazy fly ball to right for the first out and a rope to left for the second out. Ball hit by Baird was crunched pretty good, but English tracked it down on the warning track. Roth gets his 10th K of the night to end the inning. Evan Beal and Tyler Webb warming in the bullpen. Gamecocks lead 2-0.

BOTTOM 7 - Walker grounds out to deep short. Nice play there by Bowman. Shift on for Dantzler. Doesn't matter. He walks on five pitches. Greiner with an infield single to first base. For some reason, 1B cuts off a ball that would have been easy for the second baseman. Pitcher doesn't cover in time. Runners on first and second with one down for Matthews. He goes fishing on a ball in the dirt for the strikeout. First base open, they'll probably pitch Martin carefully here, given the night he's had. Well, he grounds out on the first pitch to the second baseman. Gamecocks leave two more stranded but still lead 2-0.

TOP 7 - Ford leading off the inning. He drops a single to shallow center. He's immediately cut down on a 6-4-3 double play. Not exactly a thing of beauty from either player, but effective. If you told me Bright and Payne would be the starting middle infielders in game 12 of the season I would have politely said you're crazy. Count goes full and Roth gets Servais looking at a two-seamer for the final out of the inning. Gamecocks still lead 2-0.

BOTTOM 6 - New pitcher for Princeton, which I'm sure will make USC happy. Never quite could find it against Hermans. He K'ed 6 and only allowed one run. Adam Matthews greets new pitcher - RHP Kevin Link - with a soft single to center. Martin bounces one through the right side to put runners on first and second. Payne fouls off his two-strike attempt at a bunt for a strikeout. One down. Bright puts a great swing on a belt-high fastball on the inside part of the plate. Ropes it to left field for an RBI single. Marzilli grounds to second. Princeton gets Bright at second, but no time for the relay. Two down, runners on the corners. English goes down swinging to end the inning. Gamecocks lead 2-0

TOP 6 - Roth strikes out the first hitter of the inning swinging and then a ground ball single through the left side. Another looking K gives Roth a season-high eight strikeouts. LB Dantzler makes a nice grab on a sinking liner to third to end the inning. Gamecocks still lead 1-0.

BOTTOM 5 - Marzilli begins the inning with a double to center. Centerfielder tried to make a diving play, but can't quite get it. That's two doubles today, both of which required him to bust it hard out of the box. He's done it both times. Don't always see that. English goes down swinging at ball four at his eyes. Walker takes a free base with a walk. Dantzler grounds out deep in the hole to second base. Pitcher was covering the bag. Runners move up on the 4-1. Greiner up. He goes down swinging. These guys are behind Hermans' fastball.

TOP 5 - Ground ball back to Roth, who makes the play easily for the first out of the inning. Roth had retired 12 in a row before a line drive single to RF by Servais broke that up. Roth gets a line out to right and a pop out to center to end the inning. Gamecocks lead 1-0.

BOTTOM 4 - Matthews grounds out to short to begin the inning. Kyle Martin digs in and lines a home run over the right field wall. That ball hardly left its line. A rope. That's his first HR and second RBI of his career. Payne up. He goes down looking on five pitches. Bright bounces out to short to end the inning. Gamecocks lead 1-0

TOP 4 - Roth gets a ground ball to short. Bright charges and fields cleanly a couple of steps onto the dirt. Throws to first for the first out. Line drive to left but right at English, who makes the catch. Roth gets Ford looking to end the inning. No score.

BOTTOM 3 - Walker hits a sharp one-hopper back off the pitcher's knee. Ball ricochets towards the third base line. Pitcher gets over there and fires a strike to first. He'll take a couple of warmup tosses to be sure he's OK. He is. We'll get back to it. Dantzler up. He strikes out on a pitch low and way out of the zone. Should have been ball four. Greiner still pulling off a bit. Goes down in the count 1-2. Ks on a fastball. No score.

TOP 3 - Roth leads off the inning with a strikeout - his third of the day so far. Make that two and four. After those first two hitters, Princeton isn't coming very close. Chopper up the first base line. Roth gloves and tags the runner on his way to first. What difference does it make who plays in the middle infield with innings like that? No score.

BOTTOM 2 - Martin gets barrel on a 1-2 slider and it squirts underneath a diving second baseman. That's what the coaches are talking about in having a competitive at-bat. Fell behind 0-2, fouled off a couple of pitches, took one, and then put a good swing on a good pitch down in the zone and something good happened. Payne with a perfect sac bunt to move the runner. Bright up. He goes down swinging on an 87 mph fastball inside on his hands. Marzilli walks on five pitches. None of those were really even close. Eh, one maybe. English digs in. He's behind in the count 2-2. He hits a soft liner to short to end the inning. No score.

TOP 2 - Roth gets York to pop out to Walker at first in foul ground. K number two for Roth. Make that 3Ks. Nasty change from Roth. Just unhittable. No score.

BOTTOM 1 - Marzilli doubles to RCF to lead off the inning. He was thinking two out of the box. Despite the ball being cut off by the right fielder, he slides in safely. English up and falls behind in the count 0-2. He has a 9-pitch at-bat before popping out in foul territory near the rail. Walker with an infield pop up that falls between the P, C, and 3B. No one takes charge out there and it falls in between them. Runners on first and second and Dantzler up. He pops an 0-2 pitch out to shallow left. Greiner works a 3-2 walk. This kid on the mound is bringing it for Princeton. He's 88-89 with his fastball and 82 on the slider. That's good stuff. Isn't throwing his changeup for a strike much though. Matthews puts a hurting on a 2-0 fastball but the ball falls just short on the centerfield track into Owens' glove. No score.

TOP 1 - Roth gets a fly ball to the track in left field to begin the inning. Noisy out number one. Mishu hits a ground ball double inside the third base bag. English bobbled it, but the runner was going for second no matter what. If he hadn't bobbled it, there may have been another outfield assist. Dantzler makes another nice back-handed pickup on a sharp ground ball. He looks the runner back to second, but finds the guy too far off the bag. Throws it to Payne, who chases the runner down and makes a diving tag. Runner on first, two down. Roth Ks clean-up hitter Mulroy to end the inning. No score.

Reported a little bit earlier today that Erik Payne practiced at second base for the first time yesterday. I'm very surprised he's starting there this game. Why not, I guess, right. I spoke with his old summer league coach with the Canes and he said that Payne played there some for his team. He was typically a third baseman, but played in the outfield some, too. It's going to be interesting to see how he does out there. In in-and-out, a ground ball went right through the wickets. Pankake also had a rough time picking it up at shortstop.

South Carolina

CF - Evan Marzilli
LF - Tanner English
1B - Christian Walker
3B - LB Dantzler
C - Grayson Greiner
RF - Adam Matthews
DH - Kyle Martin
2B - Eric Payne
SS - Connor Bright

LHP Michael Roth

Princeton

SS - Matt Bownman
RF - John Mishu
C Sam Mulroy
1B - Mike Ford
3B - Jonathan York
DH - Tyler Service
2B - Alex Flink
LF - Nate Baird
CF - Peter Owens

RHP Zak Hermans 1-0, 5.0IP, 2 H, 0 ER, BB, 8 K, OBA .118