Rain delayed the start for an hour, and Missouri's starting pitcher Reggie McClain kept the South Carolina bats at bay for five innings, but the No. 4 Gamecock baseball team prevailed Friday night, pulling out a 8-5 come-from-behind victory.
Sophomore Clarke Schmidt took the hill for the Gamecocks, but he didn't have his best outing, giving up four earned runs over 5.2 innings. After giving up a two-run single to Ian Nelson in the second, and surrendering a third run on a sacrifice fly in the third inning, it was a two-out RBI double from Jake Ring in the sixth that ended Schmidt's night.
"You can't expect Clarke Schmidt to be perfect every time out," head coach Chad Holbrook said. "That's not fair."
Junior Reed Scott came in to get out of the jam, and the Gamecocks trailed just 4-1 in the middle of the sixth inning.
Sophomore Alex Destino started the South Carolina rally with a leadoff double into right-center before advancing on a wild pitch from McClain. Missouri third baseman Shane Benes then made back-to-back errors, misplaying a grounder before dropping a sky-high pop-up off the bat of LT Tolbert.
Later in the inning, after senior Marcus Mooney drove in a run with a fielder's choice, junior Gene Cone hit his second double of the game, driving in two runs to give the Gamecocks a 5-4 lead, their first advantage of the night.
Cone had a strong game at the plate, going 3-4 with two doubles, a walk and three RBI. With his double in the third inning, the junior outfielder tied the school record for longest hitting streak in a single season, having hit safely in 25 straight games. Cone is one game shy of tying the overall record of 26 games, which was set by Whit Merrifield during the 2009-10 seasons.
"I wouldn't say it means much to me," Cone said of the streak. "As long as we're winning, I'm perfectly fine."
Cone wasn't the only Gamecock with a productive day at the plate, as sophomores John Jones and Jonah Bride had two hits and an RBI apiece in the win. South Carolina had 10 hits in the game, but the team hit plenty of balls hard for outs, and had the ball bounced differently, the Gamecocks could've had a few extra hits, particularly early in the game.
"That's the game of baseball," Jones said. "You can barrel up all of them and not get any hits."
The Gamecocks gave the bullpen some insurance in the bottom half of the eighth when Cone followed up back-to-back walks with an RBI single. Not to be outdone, junior Dom Thompson-Williams hit an RBI single of his own, moving Cone to third, before he eventually scored on a wild pitch.
The four-run lead was enough for Holbrook to avoid using his closer Josh Reagan, leaving sophomore Tyler Johnson in, finishing out his 2.2-inning save in relief of Scott, the winning pitcher. Johnson allowed just one hit, a no-doubt big fly from Zach Lavy in the ninth inning, while striking out four.
The Gamecocks are now 23-1 at Founders Park this season, moving to 31-8 on the year overall. The team will be back in action Saturday at 4 p.m. as Holbrook sends freshman Braden Webb to the mound in an attempt to clinch the series.