Friday's S.C. college roundup, March 29

An extraordinary week for Furman's baseball team continued Friday night.

The Paladins (8-16, 1-3) used four consecutive hit batsmen by The Citadel to tie the game in the eighth, then got a leadoff home from Dax Roper in the ninth to beat the Bulldogs, 5-4, at Latham Stadium to open their Southern Conference series.

The Citadel, behind a nine-strikeout effort by Jordan Merritt, had a 4-1 lead entering the eighth before Roper led off that inning with a double against reliever Zach Taglieri. After the next two batters struck out, Anthony Fontana doubled to score Roper.

The next four batters were hit by pitches, with the last two driving in a run each time.

The Bulldogs threatened to take a lead in the ninth, but had a runner in scoring position picked off to end the inning.

Earlier this week, coach Brett Harker's Paladins ended a seven-game losing streak with a 14-5 victory over Winthrop -- winners of eight straight -- on Tuesday.

They followed that with an 18-3 rout of Gardner-Webb on Wednesday. Jabari Richards hit for the cycle - including a grand slam - and the Paladins pulled off a triple play.

Richards had four hits and five RBI in each game. He singled and was hit by a pitch to drive in the tying run on Friday.

Game two of the series is set for 4 p.m. Saturday.

Elsewhere:
*  Clemson (20-6, 7-3) took the opener of its ACC series at Virginia Tech, 6-4, behind a solid start by Davis Sharpe and three hits from Grayson Byrd. Sharpe struck out six and allowed one earned run in six innings. Byrd was 3-for-3 to raise his batting average to .320. Carson Spiers got his eighth save.

The Tigers are a game behind N.C, State and a half-game behind Louisville in the Atlantic Division one-third of the way through the league schedule.

*  Austin Higginbotham struck out 11 batters in a complete-game effort and Wofford (18-10) opened its Southern Conference schedule with a 4-1 win over Mercer.  The Bears (12-15, 1-3) loaded the bases with one out in the top of the eighth on two hits and an error, but Higginbotham pitched out of the jam. Andrew Orzel had two doubles and Brett Rodriguez doubled and homered for the Terriers.

* College of Charleston (17-10, 2-2) won the opener of its Colonial Athletic Association home series with Hoftra, 9-0, behind Griffin McLarty's 11 strikeouts in eight innings. Logan McRae had three of the Cougars' 14 hits.

* North Greenville (25-7, 13-3) pushed its lead over Barton (20-13, 10-6) in the Conference Carolinas standings to three games with a 15-1 win over Southern Wesleyan (12-20, 4-11) in Tigerville. Tucker Burgess (8-1) pitched the first six innings, striking out six. The Crusaders had 10 extra-base hits to go with seven singles.

* Newberry (29-7, 12-1) extended its winning streak to 10 games with an 8-5 win at Wingate (23-10, 9-4) to begin a South Atlantic Conference series. The Wolves remained in first place in the SAC, a half-game ahead of Catawba.  Quinton Driggers struck out six in four innings of two-hit shutout relief for Newberry.

* Limestone (11-22, 6-10) got three hits apiece from Chase Allen, Benjamin Huber and Trace Whetsell and Payton MacPherson struck out nine in seven innings in the 6-2 win over Barton.

* Zack Moore and Carson Jones hit back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning as Lander (13-20, 8-8) rallied from four runs down to beat Augusta, 7-6, to open their Peach Belt Conference series. Jones' homer was the 29th of his career, putting him in a tie for the school's all-time lead.

* After giving up three runs in the top of the inning. Jackson Hannon's single in the USC Aiken ninth gave the Pacers (18-13, 10-6) a 13-12 win over UNC Pembroke to open a Peach Belt Conference series. The Pacers pulled within a half-game of first-place North Georgia, which did not play Friday.

* Drew Yniesta and Cole Warken hit back-to-back homers in the seventh as Erskine (17-16, 7-7) pulled away to a 6-1 victory over Chowan (11-13-1, 7-8) to open their Conference Carolinas series in Due West.

* USC Beaufort (14-22) jumped to a 13-run lead after three innings and coasted to victory at Trinity Baptist, 15-1, in the opener of a nonconference series.

* South Carolina (16-10, 1-6) lost for the seventh time in nine games with a 4-2 setback against Auburn (21-5, 5-2) at Founders Park to begin an SEC series. Freshman Daniel Lloyd got his first weekend start for Carolina and pitched well other than the second inning, when the Tigers scored three runs on four hits. Noah Campbell's two-run homer in the sixth inning was all the scoring for USC, which was held to four hits.

* Winthrop (14-11, 6-1) suffered its first Big South Conference loss of the season, giving up two runs to Radford in the bottom of the ninth for a 5-4 loss after the Eagles had scored twice to go ahead 4-3 in the top of the inning.

*Arkansas State (18-8, 6-1) took the opener of a Sun Belt Conference series at Coastal Carolina (19-7-1, 5-2) with Kyle MacDonald's three-run homer providing the bulk of the offense in a 4-2 victory. Kyle Skeels singled and homered for the Chanticleers.