March 22, 2013

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Spoon, Anderson spark Arkansas to win at South Carolina

By Phil Stanton

phil@collegebaseballinsider.com @roadtoomaha

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Tyler Spoon and Brian Anderson both had good games in one inning.

The Arkansas pair each had two hits, two runs and two RBI in a nine-run fourth in downing South Carolina 15-3 Friday evening in the SEC series opener in front of 7,616 chilly fans at Carolina Stadium.

Spoon had a leadoff single to right center in the fourth and Anderson followed with a base hit to left center just past the glove of diving shortstop Joey Pankake. Matt Vinson beat out a bunt for a base hit to load the bases. Dominic Ficociello struck out looking before consecutive walks to Willie Schwanke and Jake Wise forced in the first two runs. Jacob Morris roped a ground-rule double to left center to bring home a pair to make it 4-0. A wild pitch brought home a fifth run for Arkansas. Spoon’s two-run single chased starter Evan Beal and Anderson deposited Forrest Koumas’ first pitch over the wall in left as the Razorbacks took a 9-0 lead.

After three scoreless frames, Beal (2-1, 3.2 IP, 6 H, 4 BB, 6 K) had allowed one run in his first 19 innings of the season. He surrendered eight in the top of the fourth.

“Congratulations to Arkansas,” said South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook. “I guess you can see why they were the preseason No. 1 team in the country. The game got away from us there in the fourth inning. We had a number of walks and couldn’t make a pitch to get out of the inning. You can’t do that on Friday night in this league and expect to win.”

Barrett Astin (2-1, 5.1 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 5 K) tossed five scoreless innings before the Gamecocks put up three in the sixth. LB Dantzler and Grayson Greiner both had RBI doubles and scored for the Gamecocks (2-2, 18-4).

Arkansas (2-2, 15-7) had another big inning in the seventh as Jacob Mahan and Spoon delivered two-run singles in a five-run frame as the visitors pushed the lead to 14-3. Mahan doubled and scored the final run in the ninth for the Razorbacks.

Spoon finished with three hits, two runs and five RBI. Mahan had two hits, three runs and two RBI.

This was the first game in which South Carolina gave up double-figure runs this season. Previous high was seven in second game of season, 8-7 home win over Liberty.

Arkansas now owns a 33-28 lead in the all-time series with South Carolina. The Gamecocks had won two straight (both at the 2012 College World Series) and eight of the past 11 meetings with the Razorbacks.