South-Carolina
Brandon Stone's complete game lifts South Carolina baseball to 3-2 win
Brandon Stone saw KJ Scobey gobble up the ground ball at third base, and he put his arms in he air. He watched Scobey make a clean throw across the diamond to Beau Hollins, and he let out an enormous sigh of relief along with a karate kick.
South Carolina baseball finally got the series-opening start it has been crying out for all year, thanks to an instant classic from Stone.
Stone fired a complete game on just 86 pitches, allowing two runs on six hits with four strikes and no free passes allowed, outdueling Ole Miss ace Hunter Elliott and guiding the Gamecocks to a 3-2 victory at Founders Park. The win is just South Carolina’s second SEC series-opening win of the season, and will give the Gamecocks two opportunities to get their first conference series win of the season.
“After having a really bad game and getting walked off twice [last weekend] we needed a leader out there tonight,” Paul Mainieri said. “And he was a leader. I knew he would be. He was a tremendous leader, coming out, pounding the strike zone and getting us off to a good start.”
Stone’s complete game was the nine-inning one for the program since Brett Kerry threw one on May 15, 2021 at Kentucky, and beat the next-longest start from a Gamecock this season by two whole innings.
After shuffling the ace spot in the rotation between Dylan Eskew, Matthew Becker, Stone and Jake McCoy the last two weeks. South Carolina turned back to Stone for the opener against Ole Miss and the JUCO transfer spun a gem.
“I felt pretty good from the beginning,” Stone said. “This week in my bullpen, [pitching] coach [Terry] Rooney really worked on getting the ball down again. I just kept it down, made them get themselves out and kept throwing it.”
Right from the start, Stone had everything working. He was firing strikes, something South Carolina’s (22-17, 3-13 SEC) staff sorely needed after it issued 33 free passes last weekend at Texas A&M. He was inducing soft contact, particularly rollers to his infielders. In the first two innings alone Ole Miss (27-11, 9-7 SEC) hitters tapped two balls in front of the plate that catcher Gavin Braland handled, and weakly tapped two more balls to shortstop Henry Kaczmar.
The one time all night Stone had traffic on the bases, a ground ball saved him. Ole Miss put two runners on with one out in the fourth inning thanks to back-to-back singles — one of them an infield single after a comebacker deflected off Stone and fell into no man’s land — but a weak roller to second base allowed Jordan Carrion to start a 4-6-3 double play and end the threat.
“If I get a baserunner on, the next thing I know I’m talking to Henry and Jordan trying to get them to roll it up for me,” Stone said. “It saves a lot of pitches, and lets me go deeper in the games. It worked out tonight. They were absolutely amazing with that.”
He did allow two solo home runs, a third inning shot by Ole Miss catcher Austin Fawley and a sixth inning blast from left fielder Mitchell Sanford, but quickly got back on the beam both times and ended the inning without any more damage. He induced key double plays in the seventh and ninth innings after lead-off base runners reached.
South Carolina’s offense had its own challenges against Elliott and Ole Miss relief ace Mason Morris, but scratched across just enough offense. Nathan Hall had two critical hits in his first game back from a brief injury absence, both in scoring innings. His lead-off double set the table for the first run when he came around to score on Carrion’s RBI groundout, and his RBI single in the fifth ended up being the game-winning hit as Scobey crossed the plate.
The Gamecocks never added on. Morris struck out six of the eight batters he faced in a dominant relief outing, leaving Stone with zero margin for error. The only question was if he could finish the drill, one Mainieri posed to his starter after the eighth.
“I did go over and ask him after the eighth inning,” Mainieri said.”’Have you ever gone nine innings before?’ And he said yeah, but at a much higher pitch count, 130 pitches or so. He felt so fresh, there was no way I was taking the ball from him.”
It was Stone’s game to win or lose. And on this night, there was never a doubt which way it would go.
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South Carolina baseball gets good news on Friday as senior Talmadge LeCroy announced his return to the team via the Gamecocks Baseball X account.
LeCroy will be coming back for his fifth season in Columbia. After a program wide down year in 2025, the super senior’s return to the Gamecocks could help provide a spark in 2026.
Joining the team as a freshman in 2022, LeCroy layed in 39 games with 27 starts. He had 24 hits, five doubles, 11 RBI and 19 walks with a .381 on-base percentage that season. His play increased as a sophomore where he played in 55 games with 52 starts for the Gamecocks in 2023. LeCroy hit .289 with 39 runs scored, 10 doubles, a triple, four home runs and 42 RBI
As a junior in 2024, LeCroy played in all 62 games making 60 starts, helping the Gamecocks to a berth in the Raleigh Regional. He finished that season scoring 45 runs, had eight doubles to go along with a triple, three home runs, 28 RBI, 38 walks and 14 hit-by-pitches.
After only appearing in 17 games in 2025 due to injury, LeCroy comes back to help the Gamecocks get back to postseason play in 2026.
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CLEMSON — In football, the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry is played on the last weekend of the regular season, which is usually around or after Thanksgiving. With the exception of a few years, it has been that way almost every year since 1960.
In baseball, Clemson and South Carolina have played a three-game weekend series every year since 2010. One game is played in Clemson, one game is played on South Carolina’s home field, and one game is played at a neutral site somewhere in the state of South Carolina, usually on the last weekend of February and going into March.
However, when it comes to the Clemson-South Carolina basketball game, finding a consistent date to play has been an issue ever since the Gamecocks left the ACC in 1971. When South Carolina joined the SEC in 1992, finding a date to play became even harder.
Through the years, the game has been played mostly in the months of November and December. Since Brad Brownell became Clemson’s head coach back in 2010, the game has been played as early as November 11 and as late as December 22.
On May 7, the ACC reverted back to an 18-game conference schedule, in hopes of getting more non-conference games against Power 4 opponents. Having two less dates to fill in could also allow Clemson and South Carolina to possibly set a later date to play and more of a permanent one. “Maybe. I think we would have to have both leagues give us a bye week off at the right time,” Brownell told The Clemson Insider at last week’s Spring Meetings on Amelia Island in Florida. “It is a possibility, but I do not want to say for sure. Sometimes TV controls a lot of this, probably a lot more than a lot of us realize. We will have to wait and see.”
South-Carolina
Here’s what South Carolina politicians, parties had to say about passage of spending bill
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a sweeping spending plan that sends more money to the border and military while taking funds away from social programs.
The 1,116-page-long package narrowly passed in a 215-214 vote on May 22. President Donald Trump applauded the bill’s passage, which outlines a major restructuring of federal funds that would affect income tax rates, Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Congressional leaders from South Carolina and Greenville County Democrats and Republicans reacted along party lines to the bill and its potential impacts on South Carolinians.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where it will likely face further amendments. It needs a majority vote to clear the chamber and go to the president’s desk.
Billions in cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits
Stacey Mars, the chair of the Greenville County Democratic Party, said the bill’s changes to social services like Medicaid and SNAP will have the biggest impact on Greenville County residents.
“We already have people who are falling through the gap when it comes to healthcare,” Mars said. “Everyone, if you are an American citizen, deserves to have the support from the government.”
Katherine Harvey, the chair of the Spartanburg County Democratic Party, also said she thinks the most concerning part of the bill is the possible Medicaid and SNAP cuts.
“This is a significant impact on a part of our state that is already experiencing health disparities,” Harvey said. “Nobody asked for this. The costs would be devastating.”
The Congressional Budget Office released a preliminary analysis of the effects of the bill on May 20 — which estimates a $698 billion cut to Medicaid and a $267 billion cut to SNAP benefits over the next 10 years.
About 20,800 households in Greenville County, 11,000 in Anderson County, and 17,300 in Spartanburg County receive SNAP benefits as of April, according to the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said that 95,000 of Greenville County residents are covered by Medicaid.
South Carolina spent $8.9 billion on Medicaid in 2022, according to KFF — which is a nonprofit that conducts health policy research. The federal government covered 75% of that total.
Republican Rep. William Timmons (SC 4th District) called the legislation a “must-pass bill” that will strengthen the economy. He said that this bill will help better confirm the identities of people applying for benefits – while making sure people who are qualified will stay eligible for Medicaid and SNAP.
“We have to pass this bill,” Timmons said prior to the vote. “The American people voted for it this past November.”
The Greenville County Republican Party chairman said his members would much rather see single bills passed than large spending packages like this one, but understands this is the legislative system America has in place.
“The Greenville County Republican Party is in full support of the TRUMP agenda,” said Jeff Davis, in a statement. “We look forward to the scheduled July 4th signing of this landmark legislation.”
Reverting to 2017 tax rates, removing taxes on tips and overtime
The spending bill would also extend the U.S. tax code that was passed in 2017 during the first Trump administration, which was set to expire at the end of 2025.
The measure reduced federal income tax rates for each of the seven brackets except the lowest quintile and the second-highest quintile. A new provision to the legislation would increase the child tax credit to $2,500 through 2028.
“Extending the tax from 2017 is critical,” Timmons said.
Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn (SC 6th District) said the benefits of the 2017 tax code change were felt most by wealthier people, not the people in lower income brackets.
“You got the lower 20%, they get a negative result out of this tax cut and the upper 20% get a fantastic result,” Clyburn said. “Why are we putting taxes in such a way that benefits millionaires and billionaires?”
Clyburn joined every other House Democrat and two Republicans in a vote against the bill.
“I think it’s probably one of the worst pieces of legislation I’ve seen since I’ve been in the Congress,” Clyburn said.
No federal tax on tips and overtime
The 2025 budget reconciliation bill also gets rid of federal income taxes on overtime pay and tips, which are two items Trump campaigned on in 2024.
Just under 10% of Greenville metro area workers are employed in the food preparation and service industry, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Only three other occupational areas had more employees: production, office and administrative support, and sales.
“This bill delivers on the clear mandate voters gave us in 2024 — to restore security, sanity, and sovereignty to this country,” Republican Rep. Sheri Biggs (SC 3rd District) said. “It may not be perfect — few things in Washington are — but it delivers big wins for border security, personal freedom, and fiscal responsibility.
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