ROCK HILL, S.C. — For the first time in 2025, South Carolina baseball found itself behind.

It lasted less than half an inning.

Talmadge LeCroy’s two-run double in the fifth inning flipped a 3-2 Winthrop lead into a 4-3 South Carolina lead, and the Gamecocks held on for a 5-3 win in the first road game of the Paul Mainieri era.

"We had two-out rallies tonight," Mainieri said. "We had clutch hits, and then clutch relief pitching and clutch defense. And that's how we were able to win a really tough, hard-fought ballgame."

LeCroy’s hit gave South Carolina (4-0) a lead it never relinquished after it let an early advantage slip away. Kennedy Jones started the afternoon with a bang when he clubbed a no-doubt two-run home run out to left, his first shot of the season. Winthrop (3-1) immediately responded with a two-run home run of its own, as USC Upstate transfer Koby Kropf took Jarvis Evans Jr. deep.

Evans, the Georgia transfer, had an up and down performance in his first career Gamecock outing. He settled in well after allowing the early home run and had five strikeouts, but command was an issue just as it was for him as a Bulldog. Evans hit two batters and struggled to put hitters away, allowing six hits across 3 ⅓ innings of work. He departed the game with two runners on base and out in the fourth, giving way to another new pitcher.

JUCO transfer Brandon Stone seized the moment.

Stone did allow a tough luck run after a double steal and a fielder’s choice allowed one of the inherited runners to score, but he stepped up and struck out back-to-back batters to strand runners on the corners and hold the deficit at one.

"There's an aura about him of self-confidence," Mainieri said about Stone. "I thought he got stronger as the game went on."

That opened the door for LeCroy’s hit, a full count drive into the left field corner after Jones and Ethan Petry singled with two outs to keep the inning alive. LeCroy fell behind 1-2 in the count before working it back full and delivering the big blow.

Stone proceeded to face the minimum in his next three innings, only allowing one single which he immediately erased with a double play ball to the next hitter. He only struck out one batter in that stretch, but induced plenty of soft contact with six ground balls and only one ball in the air in his stellar outing.

"I know I'm not going to get a lot of strikeouts," Stone said. "My goal is just to make them hit it on the ground and let my defense work. They did a great job."

Nathan Hall tacked on an insurance run in the seventh inning with a double over the head of Kropf in right field, allowing KJ Scobey to score from first base. The freshman third baseman actually tripped rounding third base, but a bad throw in from right field short-hopped the catcher and allowed him to slide in safely.

After Parker Marlatt carried the game to the ninth, closer Brendan Sweeney shut the game down after a little bit of drama. The one-out single he surrendered brought the tying run to the plate and Winthrop’s nine-hole hitter Gabe Natividad crushed a would-be game-tying home run just foul before eventually ending up on first base after the 12th pitch of the plate appearance hit him.

"We're grooming Marlatt and Sweeney for these roles. Sweeney has thrown six pitches all year, so I needed to get him out there in this kind of environment and test him to let him get the experience of doing that. Even though he made it a little bit interesting at the end, he got the job done."

Three pitches later, Sweeney had a game-clinching strikeout and the Gamecocks had a gritty road victory.

"These are the kind of wins that really build confidence in a team," Mainieri said. "Months from now when we look back and hopefully when we're in a position to host or get a bid or whatever it is, we'll look back on wins like this."

South Carolina is scheduled to play again tomorrow at 4 p.m. against Queens, but a questionable weather forecast could impact the start time.

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