It was a tough first day on the diamond for ETSU’s baseball team, as the Bucs were handed a 14-2 loss by fifth-ranked South Carolina in the season opener for ETSU.
The Gamecocks put together a 15-hit attack and struck for five first-inning runs to put the Bucs in a hole that they could not get out of.
After the Bucs went down 1-2-3 in the first inning, South Carolina (4-0) wasted no time in getting a lead. Jon Coutlangus led off with a walk, stole second and advanced to third on a groundout.
A walk to the third hitter and a sac fly to left off the bat of Justin Harris gave the Gamecocks their first run. A one-out double by Trey Dyson plated another run before Garris Gonce parked a pitch over the wall in left to make it 4-0.
Landon Powell made it back-to-back homers off ETSU starter Donnie Sharp to give South Carolina a 5-0 cushion.
Trailing 6-0 in the top of the third, ETSU (0-1) strung together four of its six hits on the day to come up with a couple of runs.
Jeremy Terry led off with a double to left-center and then moved to third on Ryan Hyder’s single.
Tim Turner then struck out, but Hyder moved to second and Terry scored on an error by the USC catcher. Hyder then moved to third on a groundout, and scored on a single up the middle by freshman catcher Caleb Moore.
That would be as close as ETSU would be able to come, as the powerful Gamecock lineup proved to be too much the rest of the afternoon as they scored in every at-bat but one.
Six different hitters had hits for the Bucs, with Moore driving in the only run and Terry collecting the only extra-base hit. Sharp picked up the loss, going 2.2 innings and giving up eight runs on seven hits.
Drew Myer had three hits in five trips to lead South Carolina, scoring one run and driving in another.
Dyson and Yaron Peters drove in three runs each, while Justin Harris scored three times for the Gamecocks.
David Marchbanks picked up his second win of the season in two tries, throwing 6.2 innings, giving up both Buccaneer runs on six hits.
He struck out five without allowing a walk in improving to 2-0.
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Jon Coutlangus hit a three-run fifth inning home run Saturday to power South Carolina to a come from behind 7-4 win over ETSU and a 2-0 lead in a three game college baseball series.
The win boosted fifth ranked South Carolina’s record to 5-0 while the Buccaneers dropped to 0-2.
Chris Spigner, 1-0, rallied from a shaky first inning in which he allowed all four ETSU runs to claim the win.
Bucs’ starter Reid Casey took the loss. Spigner worked seven innings, allowing only three hits after giving up four in the first inning.
He struck out seven and walked none.
Casey, in six innings, allowed nine hits and six runs, five of them earned. He walked one and struck out five.
Blake Taylor relieved Tony Adler after Adler gave up a hit and missed the strike zone on his first two pitches to Jeremy Terry to begin the ETSU ninth inning.
Taylor coaxed a double play grounder out of Terry and retired Ryan Hyder on a fly ball to end the game. Taylor was credited with his first save of the season.
South Carolina trailed 4-3 when Steve Thomas and Landon Powell singled to open the bottom of the fifth inning. Both runners advanced on a sacrifice and Coutlangus, the South Carolina center fielder, hit an opposite field drive over the left center field fence for his first home run of the season and a 6-4 Gamecock lead.
The Gamecocks added an unearned run in the seventh inning for the final three run margin.
The Bucs jumped to a 4-0 first inning lead on four hits and a hit batter.
Brian Crouse and Terry had doubles in the inning.
Davis Burklin, Crouse, Kirk Keithley and Terry drove in the runs.
South Carolina answered with three runs in the bottom of the first on three hits, including a two-run double by Yaron Peters and a ground ball RBI by Trey Dyson, his 10th RBI in five games.
Steve Thomas had three hits, including a double, for South Carolina. Coutlangus and Drew Meyer had two hits for the Gamecocks. Justin Harris had a double.
Keithley had two hits for the Bucs.
The Bucs next face North Carolina A&T on on Feb. 23-24 at 1 p.m. on both days.

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