Milwaukee had every opportunity. South Carolina only needed one.

South Carolina baseball beat Milwaukee 5-2 in the opening game of a three-game series, dodging several bullets in the early innings to stay in the game long enough for one big swing in the sixth inning.

Milwaukee (1-3) left the bases loaded in the first, third and fifth innings plus a lead-off double in the sixth, the latter three all worked around by reliever Tyler Pitzer. Finally in the bottom of the sixth with a 2-1 deficit the Gamecocks loaded the bases thanks to a Nathan Hall single, a Kennedy Jones hit-by-pitch and a Talmadge LeCroy walk.

JUCO transfer Jase Woita stepped up, swinging a hot bat. He was already 4-for-9 in his young Gamecock career with a sharp hit earlier in the game. Woita turned around an 0-1 pitch from Milwaukee starter Gavin Theis, lining it just over the wall in left field.

His first hit as a Gamecock was a go-ahead grand slam, the key swing of South Carolina’s (6-0) comeback win.

“The at-bat before he [Theis] kind of got me on a cutter,” Woita said. “I knew that I was going to get another one at some point, so I was looking for that pitch. He was tough; he did very well. I got a mistake and was able to put a good swing on it.”

As for the feeling of your first home run as a Gamecock being a game-winning grand slam?

“I kind of blacked out a little bit,” Woita said laughing.

Although it was another victory to keep the undefeated start going, it was far from a perfect day. Just one day after finding out starting pitcher Eli Jerzembeck is out for the season, another starter went down.

Right from the start, Dylan Eskew did not look right. He walked three batters in the first inning and issued five free passes in the game, the last of which on his final pitch. After hitting Milwaukee’s Charlie Marion with the bases loaded, Eskew departed the game with a trainer after just 49 pitches.

“The preliminary thing for me was a strain by his scapula,” Paul Mainieri said. “Hopefully that’s all it is, and hopefully it’s a short term thing. I wasn’t going to risk it. He was struggling with his command anyway. I could just kind of tell he wasn’t himself out there.”

Pitzer jogged in from the bullpen in a mess. Not only did he inherit a bases loaded jam with nobody out in a tie game, he had to pick up his team after watching its Friday starter leave the game injured. He did walk the first batter he faced, but settled into a groove after that.

And not a moment too soon.

Pitzer fired three straight strikeouts with the bases loaded to hold the deficit at 2-1, then pitched out of another bases loaded jam in the fifth. One inning later he got some help from his defense after allowing a lead-off double.

“Obviously it didn’t start the way I wanted it to,” Pitzer said. “The mentality was just to fill up the zone, and don’t let any of those runs score.”

A sacrifice bunt pushed the insurance run to third, and Justin Hausser hit a ground ball to first. Ethan Petry looked the runner back, froze him for just a second, then fired a dart home in time for LeCroy to make the tag and cut down the runner.

“Ethan made a great throw and Talmadge made a great tag,” Mainieri said. “That was a very pivotal time in the game, obviously. Ethan had a couple missed plays the other night, and I know he holds himself to a very high standard. He took a lot of extra defensive work today in pre-game.”

Finally, it was enough for the offense to take advantage. The third time through the order against Theis was the difference after only getting three singles through the first 18 plate appearances. The two-out free passes Jones and LeCroy earned kept it alive, giving Woita the opportunity for his game-changing blast.

Freshman Zach Russell delivered two more scoreless innings to bridge the game to closer Brendan Sweeney, who picked up his third save of the first six games with a scoreless ninth.

“One swing of the bat was the difference in the game,” Mainieri said. “It was a very evenly played game, but Jase stepped up.”

The series continues at 2 p.m. ET tomorrow with Matthew Becker scheduled to start on the mound for South Carolina.

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