Second seeded South Carolina scored five runs in the first five innings and behind senior left-hander Michael Roth and junior right-hander Matt Price on the mound, the Gamecocks held on for a 5-3 win over 10th seeded Auburn on Thursday evening at the 2012 SEC Baseball Tournament.
Eight of nine Gamecock starters had at least one hit with Adam Matthews 3-for-4 with two RBI to lead the way. The Gamecocks improve to 40-16 on the year, the 13th consecutive season with 40 or more wins for the program. Auburn drops to 31-28 on the year.
Roth defeated Auburn for the second time this season and the second time in Hoover, as the Gamecock southpaw defeated the Tigers last year in the tournament. He went 6.1 innings and allowed two runs, one earned, on seven hits with no walks and five strikeouts.
Price came on in relief and worked the final 2.2 innings allowing one run on two hits with no walks and four strikeouts. He earned his 10th save of the year and 40th of his career with the Garnet & Black. Price is one shy of the SEC record of 41 set by Joshua Fields of Georgia (2005-08).
South Carolina tallied 13 hits on the evening. Along with three hits from Matthews, the Gamecocks also received two-hit games from LB Dantzler, Grayson Greiner and Chase Vergason. Ryan Tella, Justin Bryant and Patrick Savage were each 2-for-4 to lead Auburn at the plate.
South Carolina is back in action on Friday night against the loser of Thursday night’s Florida-Vanderbilt contest. That game will start 30 minutes following the conclusion of the 4 p.m. ET game between LSU and Mississippi State.
