State scoreboard, Friday, March 3

Cooper Ingle homered on the first pitch of the bottom of the first inning and Clemson never trailed in handing No. 23 South Carolina its first loss of the season.

Austin Gordon, pushed up a day in the rotation because Friday starter Ryan Ammons was out with an injury, pitched 4 2/3 shutout innings, giving Clemson (5-4) time to build on its early lead  and end a four-game losing streak.

Cam Cannarella had three of Clemson's hits and Gavin Abrams had a pinch-hit home run.

Gamecocks starter Will Sanders allowed all five runs, striking out nine in six innings. 

Carolina (9-1) threatened in the late innings and got the potential tying run to the plate in the ninth. 

Clemson committed four errors and USC made two. The start of the game was delayed by more than two hours because of rain.

Game 2 of the series is at Fluor Field in Greenville on Saturday.

Joseph Mershon doubled his season
RBI total in Friday's win. (CofC photo)

Player of the day: Joseph Mershon, College of Charleston, 2B, 3B, HR, 6 RBI

Briefly: Aidan Hunter and William Privette combined for three innings of shutout relief and and College of Charleston scored nine runs in its final two at-bats to push its winning streak to four games ...  A two-out error allowed the tying run to score in the ninth and Zack Beach followed with a game-winning single as Coastal Carolina rallied from a 5-0 deficit ... Francis Marion withstood a five-run ninth by Erskine to take the opener of their Conference Carolinas series ... Ramses Cordova homered twice and drove in four runs as Winthrop wiped out an early 6-0 deficit ... Travis Elliott, inserted into the lineup after Dylan Costa left with an injury suffered in a collision at second base, had a pair of run-scoring hits as The Citadel won a series opener ... Jackson Hannon had four hits and drove in three runs as USC Aiken stayed unbeaten in Peach Belt Conference play ...  Troy scored three runs in the first two innings en route to a win over USC Upstate ... Belmont Abbey snapped Southern Wesleyan's five-game winning streak to open their Conference Carolinas series ... Air Force smacked five home runs to a cruise past Charleston Southern ... Georgia Southwestern scored the game's final four runs to take a Peach Belt Conference series opener over Lander ...

Air Force 12, Charleston Southern 4 - Cha: Chandler Tuupo HR, 3 RBI

Belmont Abbey 13, Southern Wesleyan 3 - Sou: Marty Grisso 1B, HR, 2 RBI

Clemson 5, South Carolina 2 - Cle: Blake Wright 2-4, 2B
Coastal Carolina 7, Davidson 6 - Coa: Derek Bender 1B, 2B, HBP, 3 RBI
College of Charleston 11, Michigan State 3 - Cha: Trotter Harlan 1B, HR, 3 RBI
Francis Marion 10, Erskine 9 - Fra: Tyler Reynolds 2 1B, 2 2B, R, RBI
Georgia Southwestern 5, Lander 2 - Lan: Ethan Wilder 1B, 2 2B, SB, RBI
The Citadel 6, Long Island 1 - Cit: Noah Mitchell 3-4, 3B, 2 RBI
Troy 5, USC Upstate 2 - Up: Cole Caruso 3-3, BB, RBI

USC Aiken 12, USC Beaufort 3 - Aik: Joey Haney W, 7.1 IP, 3 R, 9 K
Winthrop 16, Maine 9 - Win: Brody Hopkins 2-3, 2 BB, 4 R, 3 RBI

Canceled

Bob Jones at Maryville

Georgia Highlands at USC Salkehatchie

Postponed

Columbia International at Reinhardt, to 4 p.m. March 6

Georgia State at Presbyterian, to part of March 4 DH
Sacred Heart at Wofford
(11/370)