No. 7 SOUTH CAROLINA 9, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 4
COLUMBIA, S.C. - No. 7 South Carolina used 14 hits and three Saluki errors to score nine runs and pull off the series sweep over the Southern Illinois baseball team with Sunday's 9-4 win at Carolina Stadium.

SIU has now lost four-straight and falls back to 2-5 on the year while the Gamecocks improve to 6-0.

Jordan Sivertsen extended his hitting streak to seven games with his solo home run to lead off the fifth inning. It was his first homer of the year and Sivertsen finished the day going 1-for-4 at the plate.

The Salukis had five hits in the game after tallying five in Saturday's 4-0 loss. Southern Illinois struck out 10 times Sunday and 34 times in the three-game series.

Three Gamecock hitters had three hits in the game. Third baseman Adrian Morales led the charge, as he was 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs that tied his personal best. South Carolina had four doubles, two home runs and one triple on the afternoon.

Gamecock starter Adam Westmoreland lasted 4.2 innings, giving up just four hits and four runs - all that were scored in the fifth inning. Reliever John Taylor (1-0) picked up the victory, as he threw 2.2 innings of one-hit ball and he set a new career-high with five strikeouts.
Saluki freshman Todd Eaton (1-1) picked up for the loss in his second career start. He gave up five hits and five runs (four earned) in two and two-third innings.

For the third straight game, South Carolina jumped on top of SIU early. A pair of home runs, two doubles and one triple in the first three innings gave USC a 6-0 lead after the third inning.

Sivertsen sparked a rally in the fifth, when he led off the inning with a solo home run to left field. Wes Neece followed his homer with a double off the right-field wall and after two-straight walks, the Salukis had the bases loaded with no outs.

Chris Murphy drove in one run with a sacrifice fly. After Blake Pinnonwalked, Donny Duschinsky was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in the third run of the inning. Austin Montgomery's sacrifice fly brought in the fourth and final run of the inning that saw Southern Illinois cut the lead down to 6-4.

The Gamecocks countered right away with one run in the bottom of the fifth and two unearned runs in the sixth. USC never looked back from there and the Salukis got just one hit in the final four innings to fall, 9-4.