Box Score

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Mistakes can be costly - especially when you are facing the second-ranked team in the nation as the Elon Phoenix baseball team was on Friday night.  The South Carolina Gamecocks took advantage of five Phoenix errors and received a stellar pitching performance from starter Michael Roth to earn an 8-1 win over visiting Elon in game one of a three-game set.

The loss was the first of the year for Elon which dropped to 4-1 on the campaign.  No. 2 South Carolina is now 4-0.

The Phoenix was befuddled by South Carolina pitching for 8.2 innings before Garrett Koster, a South Carolina native, belted a ball into the Elon bullpen in left-center field to erase both a no-hitter and shutout attempt by the Gamecocks.

Joey Pankake got things going in the bottom of the third with a triple off the top of the wall down the left field line.  With runners on the corners and one out, Tanner English grounded a ball to third where Chris Bresnahan attempted to tag Pankake, but was ruled to have missed the tag and the Gamecocks loaded the bases.  A 1-1 pitch to Christian Walker came in a little too far and hit him to force home the first run.  The second run scored on a sacrifice fly before a single from Grayson Greiner made it 3-0.

South Carolina took advantage of two Elon errors in the fourth to add on two more runs before a two-run homer in the sixth made it a 7-0 contest.  The final marker scored on an eighth-inning sacrifice fly.

Roth (1-0) hurled seven shutout and no-hit frames before he was replaced for the eighth inning.  Roth walked three and struck out seven.

Elon starter Kyle Webb (1-1) allowed five runs (three earned) on five hits in four innings of work.  He struck out four.  Of the eight South Carolina runs, only three were earned.

The Phoenix and Gamecocks will square off in game two of this series at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon from Carolina Stadium.  Elon will send lefty Dylan Clark (1-0) to the mound while South Carolina will counter with righty Matt Price (0-0).