No. 4 South Carolina Downs Baseball

WILMINGTON, N.C. - The Oklahoma baseball team fell to No. 4 South Carolina, 13-2, in its opening game at the Hughes Bros. Challenge, hosted by UNC-Wilmington, on Friday afternoon. A combination of solid pitching and hitting by the Gamecocks proved to be too much for the Sooners to overcome in the first ever meeting between the teams.

Oklahoma and South Carolina were tied at one apiece after the Sooners' at-bat in the top of the fourth inning, but the Gamecocks' offense tallied three runs in the bottom half of the frame, jump started by a lead-off homer by Phil Disher. South Carolina put things out of reach with a pair of four-run innings in the fifth and eighth frames.

Joseph Hughes (0-1) suffered his first loss of the year with six earned runs off nine hits in four innings pitched. For the Gamecocks, Harris Honeycutt (1-0) was solid over five innings, striking out six batters and allowing one run on three hits and a walk.

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“I thought we competed well for the first couple of innings but South Carolina's offense proved to be too much,” said OU head coach Sunny Golloway. “Despite the loss, this was still a good opportunity for our young team to play a top-ranked club. After today, they know what kind of performance is needed at the end of year in order to be one of the best teams in the country.”

After South Carolina took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, the Sooners responded in the third frame to knot things up. Freshman Aaron Baker led off the inning with a walk and was swiftly moved into scoring position on Brandon Moss's sacrifice bunt. Baker was later brought home on Joe Dunigan's double that was laced to the wall in center field.

Unfortunately for the Sooners, the Gamecocks reclaimed the lead in their next at-bat and would eventually build a an 8-1 lead after five innings. In the Sooners at-bat in the sixth, Baker, Moss and Dunigan loaded the bases with zero outs on the board after Honeycutt left the game. The scoring opportunity in the sixth was quickly extinguished on a strikeout by Jarod Freeman and a grounder by Jackson Williams which ended the threat and the inning on a 6-4-3 double play.

The OU offense tagged on its second and last run of the game in the seventh inning on pinch hitter Devin Shepherd's RBI-single to right field. Dunigan led the way for OU with a 2-for-3 afternoon which also included his fourth walk of the year. Baker had one of Oklahoma's six hits on the afternoon and extended his hitting streak to a team-high four games with a double in the sixth inning.

The Sooners (1-3) will return to action on Saturday in the Hughes Bros. Challenge in Wilmington, N.C., against the host Seahawks and Western Kentucky on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. UNC-Wilmington and Western Kentucky began the second game of the tournament at 4 p.m. on Friday. Both games will be broadcast live on the internet via Yahoo with Chuck Kelly calling the play-by-play. Pre-game coverage begins 15 minutes prior to first pitch.

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