The Sarge

BOTTOM 9 - Dantzler up to lead off the inning. Hits one on the screws, but right to Gantt. One down. Costen up. He falls behind in the count 1-2 and then fans at a slider for the second out of the inning. They're sending Bright to the dish. Kind of surprised no Martin as he has the greater power potential. He falls behind in the count 0-2. Martin is in the dugout with a helmet on and a bat in his hand. Guess they're going to pinch hit him to try to win it, not tie it, with one swing. Bright singles to right to give the Gamecocks some life. Greiner pops out to right to end the game. FINAL: Charleston 4 - Carolina 3. L: Belcher (2-2) USC (27-11) will travel to Auburn this weekend. First pitch is at 7 p.m. Friday.

TOP 9 - Heidt pops up to left. One down. Beal has pitched pretty well tonight. He needed a good outing. Ks Holton. Jackson ropes a single to right to give the Cougars a one-out base runner and bring Marty Gantt back to the plate again. He pops out to Walker just in fair territory to end the inning. Methinks that Tanner will send up some guys looking for a home run this inning. CofC leads 4-3.

BOTTOM 8 - Connor Bright bounces a single back through the box off of reliever David Peterson. Greiner coming to the dish. He walks. Vergason is being pinch hit for by Michael Roth. He hits a sharp shot towards the six hole. Goodson makes a great diving stab, but his throw is a little wide of third. Ruled, and I believe correctly, a hit. That's Roth's second hit of the season. Bases loaded with no one out. English up and bounces a single through the left side. That plates a pair, including Greiner standing up from second base. Pankake fails to bunt the first pitch. He's given the green light to swing, but fouls it off to go down in the count 0-2.He's called out on strikes looking at a pitch that appeared to be a good six inches, maybe a foot off the plate. He's been giving the outside strike all night, but not that one, so much. One down, Marzilli up. He, again, hits one on the screws but right at Murray in left. Two down for Walker. He reaches for an outside pitch and bounces to second. Heidt makes the play. CofC leads 4-3

TOP 8 - Aldrich hits a high pop fly that carries all the way to the track in right center. English, who moved over to replace Matthews and Costen goes to left, tracks it and makes the catch. Harding chops to third. LB makes a nice charging pickup and throws to first for the out. Almost mis-handled the exchange, but makes the play. Glazer bounces out to first to end the inning. CofC leads 4-1.

BOTTOM 7 - New pitcher Kyle Owings, older brother of former Gamecock signee Chris Owings (signed with Diamondbacks) in to pitch. A breaking ball gets away from him and hits Pankake in the back of the head. Marzilli barrels up a breaking ball, but it's right at the right fielder for the first out of the inning. Walker hits a slicing single to right field. Pankake was going to stop at second, but the ball gets under Aldrich. He moves up to third to put runners at the corners for Dantzler. He goes down swinging on three straight pitches. Swung through two straight curve balls after taking the first one for a strike. Yeck. Not his best at-bat of the season. Brison Celek pinch hitting for Adam Matthews and goes ahead in the count 2-1. He gets a fastball, but pops it up to Glazer at third. He drops it in foul territory. That would have ended the inning. He was right there underneath it, but just hit off the heel of his glove and falls to the grass at Holbrook's feet. Next pitch is a fly ball to center and Gantt doesn't drop it. CofC leads 4-1.

TOP 7 - Tyler Jackson pinch hits for Reed and walks on five pitches from Beal. Gantt up. He hits a sharp grounder back to the mound. Beal gloves it, and seems surprised that he did. Holds his throw to second base for just a second. Gets the force out, but Vergason's relay is late. One down. Meyers visits. Goodson puts together a good at-bat challenging Beal, but the freshman gets him swinging at a slider for the second out of the inning. Beal gets Murray looking at a breaking ball. CofC leads 4-1 at the stretch.

BOTTOM 6 - Bright grounds out to third. One down. Greiner strikes out. Two down. Vergason hit with a 2-0 pitch by West, who has quietly pitched very well. He's made a lot of big pitches here tonight in clutch spots. English ends a decent at-bat by going down looking on a full count pitch - a fastball on the outside half. Not saying things can't change, but this team looks pretty lifeless tonight. Beal back out to the mound. CofC leads 4-1.

TOP 6 - Glazer pops out to second base off of new pitcher Evan Beal. Heidt bounces out to short and Holton pops out to end the inning. CofC leads 4-1.

BOTTOM 5 - Pankake strikes out. Not a very good at-bat for him right there. One down. Marzilli with a great at-bat. Fouls off a few pitches and takes a walk. South Carolina needs base runners. Solo home run doesn't do much right now. Walker flies a 1-0 fastball to left center for the second out of the inning to bring up Dantzler. He ropes an RBI double down the right field line to give the Gamecocks their first run of the day. Matthews goes down looking to end the inning. Charleston leads 4-1

TOP 5 - Goodson flies out to deep center for the first out of the inning. Westmoreland comes in to get a few innings of work. Murray and Harding ground out, which was sandwiched around an opposite field single by Aldrich. Gamecocks get out of the inning, but still trail 4-0.

BOTTOM 4 - LB Dantzler begins the inning with a sharp single back up the middle. He's balked to second base before a 2-1 pitch to Adam Matthews, who gets beaned. Bright up and hits a tailor made double play grounder to third. Glazer steps on the bag but his throw was high. Harding looked like he stayed on the bag, but ump rules him off it. Think Carolina got a break on that one. Greiner then lines out to center. Vergason is hit with a 1-2 fastball. Good thing he wears that elbow guard or something in that elbow would have broken with that FB. You could hear the crack throughout the stadium. English grounds out to third to leave the bases loaded. CofC leads 4-0.

TOP 4 - Heidt with a sharp ground ball back up the middle. Vergason ranges over to his right and makes the play. One quick down. Holton swings at a pitch almost over his head on a 3-1 count. Instead of taking his base, he ends up striking out on a fastball. He's not very happy with himself. Nine-hole hitter Reed drops a soft, slicing single to right field. One on, two down. Gantt is first pitch swinging and hits it a bit off the handle. Soft liner to Marzilli, who hardly has to move. CofC leads 4-0.

BOTTOM 3 - Quick inning for West. English pops out to right. Pankake goes down looking at a high fastball. Marzilli walks on four pitches, but Walker flies out to right. CofC leads 4-0.

TOP 3 - Gantt pops out to Matthews for the first out of the inning. Goodson, another player who has been tearing it up lately, hits another wall-scraping home run to left field. Hit almost in the same spot as Glazer's. That's three jacks given up by Belch, who then hits Brandon Murray. Jerry Meyers out to visit. Belcher stays in and gets Aldrich swinging, but then gives way to Patrick Sullivan. He comes in and gives up a sharp single up the middle by Harding, but gets Glazer swinging to end the inning. CofC leads 4-0

BOTTOM 2 - Adam Matthews digs in. He changes his plate music. I don't know the name of the song, but I've heard it before. Does that count for anything? I usually listen to sports talk radio now. Anyway, he pops out to second. One down. Bright up and gets plunked. Runner on with one down for Greiner, who falls behind in the count 0-2. Greiner gets got - yeah, I use broken English in a blog - on four pitches. Two down. Vergason up and he gives a fastball a ride to the gap in right center. Looks like an easy double off the bat, but Gantt tracks it down. Great play. CofC leads 3-0.

TOP 2 - Brandon Glazer, who has been inserted in recent games at third base to give the Cougars more of a punch against left-handed hitters, does his job. He gets a ball up in the air with a lot of backspin and it just keeps carrying. The ball almost hit the top of the left field wall, but carried just over it for a solo home run. Belcher gets the next three in order though - Heidt and Holton on strikes and Reed on a pop up to second base. CofC leads 3-0

BOTTOM 1 - Ryan West had a great start against South Carolina a couple of weeks ago. If they had left him in longer, that game would have stayed close, I think. Starts out giving up a leadoff double by Pankake to left. He moves to third on a fly ball to deep center by Evan Marzilli. Got a good piece of that. West gives Walker a steady diet of sliders, and he can't put them in play. He goes down on strikes. Dantzler looking for the RBI hit now. Dantzler lunges for an outside pitch and pops it up to left. Leadoff double left stranded. CofC leads 2-0.

TOP 1 - Pre-determined split for the Gamecocks and starting pitcher Nolan Belcher. After missing with a first pitch curve ball, Belcher gives up a rope for a double down the third base line past LB Dantzler by former Gamecock signee Marty Gantt. He's crushing it this year hitting .387. Belcher comes back to strike out the next two. Goodson goes down looking at a curveball that crossed at the top of the strike zone. He was hoping for ball four, but doesn't get the call. Murray goes down swinging at a fastball at the shoulders. Belcher goes behind in the count to Aldrich 2-1. He's had a tough year, but he's playing better lately. Just as I type that, he hits a hooking line drive onto the concourse in right field. Got into that one from Belcher to put his team on top. Belch gets Harding swinging on his deceptively hard fastball. CofC leads 2-0

I really, really like Connor Bright in there at DH. Really like the move. I think he is a player who could be needed at some point later in the season. He's the only viable shortstop if something happens to Pankake. Vergason, while playing really well right now, I don't know that it's 100 percent he stays playing as well as he has. Bright is the best defensive guy and getting him some ABs is a very smart move, in my opinion. He could be a guy who will be needed down the stretch.

South Carolina

SS - Joey Pankake
CF - Evan Marzilli
1B - Christian Walker
3B - LB Dantzler
RF - Adam Matthews
DH - Connor Bright
C - Grayson Greiner
2B - Chase Vergason
LF - Tanner English

LHP - Nolan Belcher

College of Charleston

CF - Marty Gantt
SS - Bradley Goodson
LF - Brandon Murray
RF - Daniel Aldrich
1B - Rob Harding
3B - Brandon Galzer
2B - Gunner Heidt
C - Jimmy Holton
DH - Devon Reed

RHP Ryan West - 3.27, 3-3, 44 IP, 35 H, 16 ER, 9 BB, 36 K, OBA .216

College of Charleston is on the field right now taking batting practice. Most of these guys have extremely short hair after shaving their heads for the St. Baldricks organization a couple of weeks back. One of the guys on the team is the younger brother of one of my best friends in high school, who is a leukemia survivor. I made my little donation and the player, third baseman Rob Harding (a Spring Valley grad - Go Vikings!), raised over $2,000. The team raised over $10,000, I believe it was.

The Eye Center, with Drs. Milne, Huff, and Clary, specialize in LASIK and Lifestyle Implant Lenses, but they’ll also fix any problem with your eyes to help you see better. No. 1 Gamecock baseball fan Bill “Oot Oot” Golding has nothing but great things to say! “I have never seen better out of my eye and cannot wait to have my other cataract removed. From top to bottom, from the clinic to the surgery staff, I have never been treated more kindly and professionally.” - Bill Golding ... Be sure to Like their page on Facebook or visit The Eye Center’s website!