COLLEGE BASEBALL

For the second time in three years and 13th time overall, the University of South Carolina baseball team will play for a berth in the College World Series.

The Gamecocks won the Greenville Regional at Clark-LeClair Stadium in North Carolina after defeating UNC-Wilmington 8-4 in the final this past Monday. It was the program’s 18th regional title in school history.

South Carolina (36-24) struck first with a pair of runs in the top of the third. Carlos Cortes led off the inning with a single up the middle. He went to second on an infield single by Jonah Bride. Justin Row walked to load the bases and Hunter Taylor brought in a pair with an infield double to the shortstop.

The Seahawks answered with a run in the bottom of the third on Mason Berne’s RBI single up the middle.

South Carolina scored a pair in the sixth inning as Madison Stokes brought in Danny Blair with a sacrifice fly to left and LT Tolbert singled to right to bring in Cortes. Then in the seventh, Stokes doubled to the gap in right, scoring Blair and Cortes and giving Carolina a 6-3 lead. Bride then added insurance in the ninth with a 2-run home run to left.

Cortes was 4-5 with three runs scored while Stokes, Bride, Tolbert and Jacob Olson had two hits apiece in the win. Mlodzinski earned the win, striking out three and allowing four hits and three runs in five-plus innings of work.

Eddy Demurias pitched three innings and struck out five while Sawyer Bridges pitched the final frame.

Danny Blair was named the Greenville Regional Most Valuable Player while he joined Cortes, Justin Row, L.T. Tolbert and Cody Morris on the all-tournament team.

Up next for the Gamecocks is a familiar foe in the Fayetteville Super Regional in Southeastern Conference rival in fifth-ranked Arkansas.

The Razorbacks took two out of three from South Carolina in a home series back in April. Game One of the series is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2.

Game 2 will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday and Game 3, if necessary, at 7 p.m. Monday. Both games will air on ESPN.