Gamecocks get win, sweep of Tigers

COLUMBIA, S.C. - For the second straight game, Brendan Winn figured he'd made a long out. But just like Saturday, Winn had the decisive hit as South Carolina swept its weekend series with rival Clemson.

Winn's lazy fly in the eighth inning dropped inches between Tiger outfielders Jason Ferguson and Travis Storrer, scoring Michael Campbell with the winning run in the Gamecocks 6-5 win on Sunday.

While Winn's shot might have been deep enough to score Campbell anyway, the mistake proved the difference between experience and youth.

"I didn't think it was going to drop, but I'll take it," Winn said.

On Saturday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, Winn hit a wind-aided, two-run homer to help South Carolina beat Clemson 6-3.

"It makes me feel pretty good," Winn, a senior, said. "I don't think I got any hits against them last year."

At least for now, Winn owns two of the biggest of the Gamecocks' season - at least in the eyes of South Carolina fans who often base their seasons on how well their team does against Clemson.

Don't get too cocky, Gamecock fans. South Carolina won the weekend series at this time a year ago, but Clemson (5-7) won the final two games in the series to split things at two each. The teams meet twice more, on April 13 at Clemson and April 20 at South Carolina.

Winn's double capped a three-run rally for South Carolina (15-1), which has won five in a row since its lone loss of the season to Pepperdine.

For some time, it looked like the Gamecocks wouldn't get their strong offense going. Clemson starter Kris Harvey had given up only four hits over seven innings, retiring 15 of 16 batters before coming out.

But Tommy King opened the eighth with a walk off freshman reliever David Kopp. After Kopp got dangerous Steve Pearce - he was a 10th round draft pick of the world champion Boston Red Sox last season - on a fly out to center, pinch hitter Ryan Mahoney chopped a ball back to the mound. But Kopp threw wildly past first, letting King score and sending Mahoney to third.

Campbell sliced a liner past the bag at first and into the right field corner for the game-tying triple before Winn's decisive hit. The Gamecocks had a chance for more, but Winn was thrown out at home on Neil Giesler's single to right.

"We played well other than that one inning," Clemson coach Jack Leggett said. "It's just a shame that we had to let it slip away in that fashion."

The Tigers (5-7) had put together a rally of their own as they tried to split the weekend series. Storrer had a two-run double and Tyler Colvin an RBI single as Clemson took a 5-3 lead.

But Harvey, who had thrown 104 pitches, had to come out. "I was pretty much out of gas," he said.

Kopp seemed to have plenty of time to field Mahoney's chop and make the out, just as Ferguson appeared to have Winn's fly under control.

"We didn't do what we had to do at the end of the ballgame," Leggett said. "We were playing a little tentative; we've got a lot of young players and unfortunately that shows up sometimes."

Clemson tried for one last comeback with runners on first and third in the ninth, but closer Brent Marsh got Harvey on a tricky fly that left fielder Gregg grabbed for the final out.

Gamecock freshman Andrew Cruse (3-0) worked the 2 1-3 innings of two-hit ball for the victory. Marsh picked up his fourth save of the season.

Drew Fiorenza (1-1), Clemson's third pitcher who gave up the fly ball to Winn, allowed three hits and took the loss.

Clemson has lost three in a row. It dropped this one despite outhitting South Carolina 13 to seven. However, two big mistakes in the eighth inning on Kopp's errant throw and the outfield blunder were more than enough for the Gamecocks to sneak past.