Senior TJ Hopkins hit for the cycle, classmate Jacob Olson had 2 home runs and five RBI, redshirt freshman Ian Jenkins had 3 hits and freshman Brett Kerry struck out 6 in a 5-plus inning start as the 24th-ranked University of South Carolina completed a 3-game sweep of Valparaiso with a 12-6 win Sunday afternoon at Founders Park.

Hopkins started his cycle with a home run to left in the 4th inning. He doubled in the 5th, and singled in the 7th. He completed the feat by tripling in the 8th to the gap in right.

Hopkins, who scored 3 runs and drove in 4, becomes the first Gamecock to hit for the cycle since Kyle Martin on April 11, 2015 against Florida. He now has seven RBI on the year, leading the team. Olson homered in the fourth and seventh frames.

Jenkins, making his second career start, got the Gamecocks on the board with a home run to right center in the third inning. Valpo answered with a run in the 4h, but the Gamecocks came back in the bottom of the frame on homers from Hopkins and Olson. A Hopkins' double in the 5th scored Jenkins, giving South Carolina a 5-1 lead.

Valpo put up 3 runs in the sixth, highlighted by a 2-run home run from Blake Billinger, then tied the game in the seventh on a Sam Shaikin sacrifice fly. South Carolina took the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh on Olson's 3-run home run to left center. A solo home run from Valpo's Brent Jones cut the lead to 8-6 in the eighth.

Valpo had runners on first and second with no one out with redshirt sophomore TJ Shook entering the game. The Dutch Fork graduate and former Lexington County Blowfish pitcher got a strikeout and a double play with runner's interference to end the threat.

South Carolina added insurance with 4 runs in the eighth. Jenkins singled to open the frame. Noah Campbell singled, moving pinch runner Jacob English to third base. English scored on a wild pitch and Hopkins drove in a pair of runs with the triple that clinched the cycle. The final run scored on Luke Berryhill's RBI fielder's choice.

Kerry threw five innings and allowed three runs and six hits with six strikeouts and no walks. Sawyer Bridges earned the win in relief, allowing a run and two hits in an inning's work. Shook picked up the save, striking out a pair in two innings of work.

Up next for South Carolina (13-3) is a rematch against The Citadel at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Joe Riley Park.