Mashore’s early grand slam opens big scoring night in South Carolina’s run-rule win

They don’t call Dalton Mashore “Mash” for no reason.

While Mashore hadn’t been living up to his nickname for most of this season, he finally did so on Tuesday. His first-inning grand slam got the scoring started in South Carolina’s 13-3 run-rule win over USC Upstate to snap a two-game losing streak.

Mashore, a transfer outfielder who previously played at St. Mary’s, still hadn’t hit his first home run as a Gamecock. But with the bases loaded and one out, he got every bit of a 1-0 pitch over the middle of the plate and sent it out beyond the tall trees in left centerfield.

These were South Carolina’s (20-14, 2-10 SEC) first runs since the fifth inning of Saturday’s 11-4 loss to Mississippi State. Over that stretch, 13.2 innings since its last run, the offense only produced two hits, both of which came on Sunday. But Mashore’s early blast kickstarted a good night for the bats to get out of the funk.

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In the second inning, Ethan Petry crushed a two-run shot for his 53rd career homer as a Gamecock. He’s now 10 home runs away from breaking Justin Smoak’s program record of 62 career bombs.

The offense went quiet over the next few innings but broke out for six runs in the sixth. The rally started after South Carolina opened the frame with three straight singles to load the bases.

From there, Nathan Hall drove in a run with an RBI walk. Then, Jordan Carrion delivered the big blow with a bases-clearing double. KJ Scobey capped off the scoring with a two-run single into left.

After the Spartans kept the game alive with a run in the seventh, Cayden Gaskin hit a “walk-off” solo homer in the bottom of the inning to give the Gamecocks their run-rule victory.

Up next: South Carolina will head back on the road to begin a three-game series with Texas A&M starting Thursday night in College Station. First pitch is at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

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