March 13, 2008
COLUMBIA, S.C.--The Yale baseball team had its biggest win in years on Tuesday night. On Wednesday night in game two of the series against No. 5 South Carolina, it looked for a little while like the Bulldogs might do it again. Then the powerful Gamecocks hitters found their groove. South Carolina (10-3) batted around in consecutive innings, scoring nine runs during that time, en route to an 11-5 victory over the Bulldogs (3-6) at Sarge Frye Field. With a solo home run in the ninth, Ryan Lavarnway tied Tony Paterno's school record of 26 career home runs.
"I'm very proud of the way our guys played this series," Mazzuto Family Head Coach John Stuper said. "We were aggressive and didn't shy away from one of the best teams in the country."
The Gamecocks got on the board first when All-American Justin Smoak roped an RBI double in the bottom of the first, but the Bulldogs responded immediately with a run in the top of the second. Jake Doyle walked leading off the inning, then scored when Trygg Larsson-Danforth smacked an RBI double to left center. Yale took the lead with a run in the top of the third. P.J. Gorynski walked, moved to second on Josh Cox's sacrifice bunt, and went to third on an error. After Gant Elmore struck out, Lavarnway's sacrifice fly to straight away center field gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.
South Carolina tied it with a run in the bottom of the fourth, then broke the game open by batting around in both the fifth and sixth innings. Scott Wingo homered to right leading off the fifth, and Yale needed three pitchers to get out of the inning. The Gamecocks, who had five total hits on Tuesday night, belted four in the four-run fifth.
Walks got the Bulldogs in trouble in the bottom of the sixth. Wingo led off the inning with a walk, but was thrown out trying to steal second. A walk to Reese Havens, a throwing error by pitcher John Henry Davis on a sacrifice bunt and an intentional pass to Smoak loaded the bases with one out. Davis got Kyle Enders to pop to second for the second out, but James Darnell followed with a grand slam to center that made it 10-2. The Gamecocks added another run when Wingo was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Yale picked up two runs in the top of the eighth. Larsson-Danforth and Andy Megee belted back-to-back singles to start the inning, then were driven home when Gorynski doubled to right. In the top of the ninth, Lavarnway came up with one out and connected on a shot that hit the scoreboard in right field. It was his fourth homer in three games and his sixth of the season.
Chris Finneran started on the mound for the Bulldogs and pitched the first two innings. He gave up two hits and a run while striking out two and walking two. Eight other hurlers got into the game, including Megee, who tossed a 1-2-3 seventh and struck out a batter in his first career pitching appearance. Chris Walsh (0-1) suffered the loss after giving up Wingo's go-ahead home run. As a unit, Yale's hurlers walked eight and struck out six.
The Bulldogs belted nine hits and stole five bases. Chris Sweeney went 2-for-2 and had two steals. Larsson-Danforth, who was hitless on the season coming into the series, went 4-for-4 at the plate. He was 7-for-9 with three RBIs in the two games.
"I gave Trygg an opportunity to play, and he responded," Stuper said. "They couldn't get him out."
South Carolina starter Sam Dyson yielded two runs (one earned) and three hits with three strikeouts and four walks in three innings. Sean Wideberg (1-0) was excellent in four innings of scoreless relief. He gave up just one hit and one walk and struck out eight Bulldogs. Will Casey tossed the final two innings and surrendered three runs and five hits while striking out four and walking one. The three Gamecock hurlers tallied 15 strikeouts between them.
The Gamecocks smacked 11 hits as a team, including two each for Enders, Darnell and Harley Lail. Whit Merrifield scored three runs, while Smoak and Lail each crossed the plate twice. Darnell had five RBIs.
The Bulldogs have Thursday off before continuing on to Spartanburg, S.C., for a four-game series with Wofford (10-3) starting Friday at 4 p.m.
Report filed by Joe Clifford, Yale Sports Publicity