MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Effective pitching from Eli Pillsbury and Maddox McDougall, along with three home runs from Trey King, Grayson Ashe, and Sam Richardson, powered the Gamecocks to a 10-1 victory to open the series against the Memphis Tigers at FedExPark on Friday night.
The Gamecocks improved to 8-2 on the season, while Memphis dropped to 3-6.
For King and Richardson, the homers marked the first homers of both of their careers.
Pillsbury earned the second win of his career to move to 2-0 on the season, pitching 5.1 scoreless innings and sat down four batters. Memphis starter Seth Garner was tagged with the loss after giving up the first six runs of the game. McDougall earned the save after 3.2 innings of effective relief, fanning four of his own.
For the first three innings, the only thing either side could get on the pitchers was a Memphis single against Pillsbury, which was promptly nullified when the following batter grounded out to Pillsbury.
The Gamecocks opened the scoring immediately in the top of the fourth when King launched the first home run of his collegiate career 377 feet to right field, hitting the video board in right. Ashe followed this shortly after with his 385 foot homer to left field, scoring Cooper Blauser as well, putting Jax State up 3-0 after the top of the fourth.
Memphis threatened with runners on first and second in the home half of the fourth with one out, but Caleb Johnson induced an unassisted line-out double play to end the inning.
In the top of the fifth, Blauser tripled to center field to send Orlando Peña home, bumping the lead up to 4-0. Richardson's home run flew 368 feet to left field, plating Blauser and putting the Gamecocks up 6-0 after five innings after Memphis went down in the bottom of the fifth.
The top of the sixth saw the Gamecocks add three more runs, starting with an RBI-single from Matthew Cash, sending Jaxon Pate home. Caleb Johnson would bring Cash home on his own RBI-single shortly after, then Johnson would come home on a wild pitch to make it 9-0.
The Gamecocks put the game in run-rule territory with a 10th run in the top of the eighth on a Blauser sac fly, scoring Trey Majette, but Memphis would score its lone run of the night from a double play in the bottom of the eighth to keep the game at a nine-run margin.
This game was the first time since March 18, 2023, that the Gamecocks pitching staff did not walk anyone. The win also is the eighth-straight for the Gamecocks, representing the longest win streak for the team since the 2019 squad won 12-straight.
The Gamecocks look to win the series in the middle game on Saturday at 2 p.m.
