NASHVILLE, TN – Christian Walker tallied his first two-homer game of his Gamecock career, senior left-hander Michael Roth allowed only three runs in six-plus innings of work to improve to 3-0 and junior right-hander Matt Price pitched three hitless innings of relief for his first save of the year as South Carolina defeated Vanderbilt 8-3 in the series opener at Hawkins Field.
South Carolina improves to 19-7 and 2-5 in the SEC while Vanderbilt drops to 10-16 and 2-5 in league play.
Walker now leads the Gamecocks with five homers for the season. He was 2-for-3 with three runs scored and three RBI for the evening. Tanner English was 2-for-5 with a run scored as well. Brison Celek drove in a pair of runs. Evan Marzilli has reached base in all 26 games this season.
Game two of the series is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET on Saturday. It will be televised live on CSS and Time Warner Cable channel 506 in South Carolina and North Carolina. Freshman right-hander Evan Beal (1-2, 3.68 ERA) will make his first career start for the Gamecocks. He will go against Vanderbilt freshman right-hander Tyler Beede (0-3, 6.46 ERA).
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