Vanderbilt evens series with 12-4 victory over South Carolina

Nashville, Tenn. — Vanderbilt sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom of the fourth inning and tallied seven runs on seven hits on the way to a 12-4 victory over South Carolina on Saturday afternoon in front of 3,113 fans at Hawkins Field.

With the game scoreless in the bottom of the fourth, the Commodores (11-16, 3-5 SEC) made their move as Mike Yastrzemski led off with a double and advanced to third on Conrad Gregor’s groundout to Erik Payne at second base. The Commodores got on the scoreboard with Spencer Navin’s one-out RBI single that was a high chopper over the head of third baseman LB Dantzler.

USC starter Evan Beal was effective through the first three innings but then struggled with his control as he walked Vince Conde and Connor Harrell to load the bases. USC went to the pen for junior right-hander Forrest Koumas. With a 2-2 count, Riley Reynolds bounced a base hit through the right side that scored a pair of runners to give Vanderbilt a three-run lead. Jack Lupo and Tony Kemp added RBI singles as well. Lupo’s base hit was a bunt single with Kemp driving a base hit into right field. The Gamecocks (19-8, 2-6) went to the pen one more time for right-hander Patrick Sullivan.

The Commodores drove home one more run as Anthony Gomez’s bunt popped in the air but stayed just fair down the first-base line for an RBI single that gave Vanderbilt a 7-0 lead.

The seven-run lead was more than enough for Vanderbilt starter Tyler Beede (1-3), who went six-plus innings and allowed one run on five hits with one walk and seven strikeouts to pick up his first career win.

Beal (1-3) allowed four runs on four hits with three walks and four strikeouts in 31/3 innings of work.

The Commodores added two more runs in the fifth inning to increase the lead to 9-0.

USC got on the scoreboard in the top of the seventh inning. Erik Payne reached base with an infield single to open the frame, and Grayson Greiner doubled down the left field line to give the Gamecocks runners on second and third base. Dantzler drove in Payne with an RBI groundout.

Vanderbilt responded with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and one in the bottom of the eighth. Chris Harvey tallied a pinch-hit single, John Norwood also had an RBI and Connor Castellano had a pinch-hit home run.

South Carolina had a strong ninth inning, scoring three runs off of Miller.

Kyle Martin led off the frame with a double to left-center followed by a Dante Rosenberg single up the middle. With one out and runners on the corners, Tanner English drove in Martin with an infield single. A throwing error by Vanderbilt second baseman Castellano and a fielding error by shortstop Joel McKeithan scored Rosenberg and English.

English went 2 for 4 to lead the Gamecocks at the plate.

The series concludes today with a 2 p.m. start.