COLUMBIA, S.C. - Georgia Southern softball rallied with two runs in the seventh inning, but fell short of upending No. 16 South Carolina as the Gamecocks claimed a 5-3 win over the Eagles on Wednesday evening at the Carolina Softball Stadium.

The Gamecocks improved to 11-3 overall with the non-conference win, while Georgia Southern dropped to 10-5. The Eagles will next travel to another SEC venue, participating in the 2020 Auburn Tiger Invitational on Friday through Sunday in Auburn, Ala. Georgia Southern will face Binghamton at 11 a.m. and Auburn at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.

"I'm always proud of this team for the fight," Georgia Southern Head Softball Coach Kim Dean said. "We had really good conversations after the game about how we don't want to settle on just being competitive. We want to at least get tying run on base, and the go-ahead run at the plate like we did tonight, so we can push the runs across we need. We want to fix some things so in the future, we flip it it so after the game, we're talking about how we got the win."

South Carolina built a 5-0 lead over the Eagles in the first three innings, getting two in the first on a leadoff home run by Kenzi Maguire and a sacrifice fly by Katie Prebble. A two-run shot by Prebble in the third and an error capped the early five-run outburst.

Georgia Southern got its first run of the game in the fourth inning thanks to Olivia Creamer's sacrifice fly, scoring pinch runner Alisha House.

In the top of the seventh, pinch hitter Shelby Barfield and Mekhia Freeman drew walks around an out against Gamecock reliever Karsen Ochs. Faith Shirley then singled to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate in Bailee Wilson. 

Wilson singled just over the outstretched glove of SC second baseman Mackenzie Boesel into right center, plating Barfield and Freeman to make the score 5-3. South Carolina called on Bailey Betenbaugh out of the bullpen, who recorded back-to-back fly ball outs to end the game.

Karly Heath (2-0) notched the win for South Carolina with four innings of one-hit, one-run ball, walking four while striking out six. Betenbaugh's 2/3rds of an inning of shutout ball earned her the save. Rylee Waldrep (3-2) took the loss for the Eagles, giving up six hits and five runs - four earned - in three innings of work, walking one and striking out one.

Wilson finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBIs to lead the Eagles offensively. Prebble's home run and three RBI led the Gamecocks.

"We did a lot of things right tonight," Dean said. "We made some good adjustments at the plate, and defensively, we're just getting better and better with the more innings were getting under out belt. Lots of positives from tonight, trusting that we need to be competing with these teams and pushing the issue to get the win. Looking forward to using that as momentum going into the weekend at Auburn, where we're taking on some really good teams. We know we're going to be having to throw our best punches."