Founders Park: After his team was four-hit in a shutout loss to Georgia Southern Wednesday night, South Carolina coach Mark Kingston was optimistic that a good workout Thursday would lead to a better offensive performance Friday night. However, Texas A&M starter Ryan Prager wouldn’t go along with those plans.
Prager held the Gamecocks to two runs on four hits and struck out a dozen in 6.1 innings as the Aggies rolled to a 9-2 win at Founders Park in the opener of the SEC series. Prager, who came into the game with the fifth lowest ERA in the SEC at 2.21, threw 107 pitches with 70 for strikes. He did not walk a batter and hit one. At one point, he retired 11 batters in a row. He is now 6-0 on the season.
Three relievers finished up for the Aggies and allowed two hits and yielded two walks. The Aggie pitches combined to strike out 17 Gamecock hitters.
The Aggies got all the offense they would need in their first at bat with four runs on five hits off Eli Jones. USC got a run back in the bottom of the second on a sol homer by Talmadege LeCroy.
A&M effecrively put the game on ice in the third scoring three more runs off Jones with two outs on an RBI single and a two run homer.
Jones suffered through the shortest outing of his career in an SEC game allowing eight hits and seven runs in just 2.2 innings as his record dropped to 2-1 and his ERA rose from 2.45 to 3.89.
The Gamecocks did get some good work from four releivers who allowed two runs on five hits.
USC has lost four of their last five games and is now 21-9 overall and 5-5 in the SEC. The third ranked Aggies are 27-3 and 7-3 in the league.