Boxscore
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Austin Mapes and William Kinney hit solo homers in the opening two innings, but The Citadel managed only four hits over the final seven frames and dropped a 4-2 decision to South Carolina before a crowd of 8,075 on Wednesday in Columbia.

The Gamecocks (23-11) scored all their runs in the third in completing the season sweep over the Bulldogs (15-16). South Carolina, ranked No. 20 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, also won 2-0 at Riley Park on March 31.

The game was not decided until the ninth when The Citadel loaded the bases against closer Taylor Widener on singles by Kinney and Bret Hines and a walk to Mapes. But Gamecock first baseman Kyle Martin reached into his own dugout to snare a foul pop up by Johnathan Stokes to strand the potential tying and lead runs on base.

Mapes quickly made sure the Gamecocks wouldn't make it two shutouts over The Citadel this season when he took the second pitch of the game from Clarke Schmidt over the wall in right for his third home run of the year. Kinney made it 2-0 with a shot to left for his first career home run before the Gamecocks used a well-placed base hit to highlight the decisive inning.

With Jacob Watcher on the mound, South Carolina loaded the bases with two outs when a pop up to right center by Jordan Gore appeared to get the Bulldogs out of the jam. But the ball found an open patch of green between three defenders and all three runners raced home to put the Gamecocks ahead.

Madison Stokes followed with an RBI single to cap the uprising as well as the scoring for the evening.

In addition to their threat in the ninth, the Bulldogs put the tying runs on base in the sixth on a walk to Drew Ellis and a single by Mike Deese before Brandon Murray got Kinney to ground out to short to keep it a two-run Gamecock lead. 

The Citadel used six pitchers in the game, including two innings of one-hit, shutout ball by Kevin Connell. Schmidt worked the first four frames and struck out seven before yielding to Vince Fiori, who struck out a pair in 1 1/3 innings to earn the win. Widener recorded his eighth save by escaping the jam in the ninth.

Mapes added a double in the seventh to join Kinney and Hines with two-hit nights. The Bulldogs left nine runners on base and struck out 14 times against six Gamecock hurlers.

The Citadel returns to Southern Conference play Friday at 4 when it hosts Wofford at Riley Park. The series continues on Saturday at 2 and Sunday at 1, and all three games can be seen on the SoCon Digitial Network.