USC plays loose, wins big once again
It got "hairy," as USC coach Ray Tanner so succinctly put it. His No. 3 Gamecocks led 5-3 and had closer Matt Price on the mound, but at the same time top-ranked Vanderbilt had the tying run in scoring position and had leadoff man Tony Kemp, who entered the game hitting .331, at the plate.
The moment was about as rich with tension, anxiety and excitement as you're going to get from a regular season baseball game. It was being played in Columbia during the month of April, but it felt like Omaha in June.
If you looked inside the South Carolina dugout though, you wouldn't have known it. Many of the Gamecocks, led by Michael Roth, were jumping, dancing and gyrating, imitating the Globo Gym Purple Cobra motions from the seminal American cinematic achievement "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story." You certainly wouldn't have known it if you gazed out into the USC bullpen either. There, the handful of inhabitants were assembled shoulder-to-shoulder, high-kicking like they were the Radio City Rockettes and it was Christmas in Manhattan.
Sure, it's an unorthodox way to approach such a dramatic moment. But then again, this is an unorthodox team, and in a good way. As evidenced by the national championship rings they wear on their fingers, their way works.
"That's what helps us stay relaxed," said Jackie Bradley Jr. of his team's loose temperament. "No matter if we're down, up; we're always messing around."
Tanner said coming into the series his team had no fear of playing a No. 1 team. He might as well have said his team has no fear of anything, because that appears to be the case.
For six innings Sunday, there was no joy off the banks of the Congaree for the home team. It appeared a foregone conclusion; Vanderbilt was going to ride another strong starting pitching performance to victory and would head right into their luxury sleeper buses behind the right field wall with a series win, sole possession of first place in the Southeastern Conference, and another week at the top of the polls guaranteed.
Even USC was willing to admit such. When closer Matt Price was put into the game at the top of the seventh, the signal was clear: if one more Commodore crossed home plate, the day was done.
But through it all, the Gamecocks stayed loose and stayed cool. Price held Vandy down, and then came heaven in the seventh — a rally started by pitcher-turned-designated hitter Steven Neff's first career hit morphing into a four-run explosion when it seemed impossible that the Gamecocks could even score one more run.
But they got the job done then and in in the ninth as well. Another No. 1, another series win. Who knows what Monday's updated Baseball America poll will bring, but it very likely could bring the Gamecocks back to the spot they left Rosenblatt Stadium in last season. If it does, it'll get there as a unit.
A wacky, fearless, outstanding unit.
"We really take pride in working together and being a team," Bradley said. "Last year's team was last year's team. We knew what it took to get back to where we were."
Those extracurricular activities in the dugout and bullpen — Bradley deemed what the relievers do on what seems to be a daily basis "crazy antics" — are just a manifestation of what the All-American outfielder said is "amazing" team chemistry. A lot of people, especially grizzled baseball men who love and respect the game so much, would look down on the antics as a sign a team doesn't understand the magnitude of the moment and of how to play the sport. Tanner will quickly disabuse such thoughts though.
"They get it," he said. "There's going to be struggles, there's going to be down times. And you're not going to be good all the time. You sort of got to keep it in perspective and hope you've got enough people surrounding you.
"At the end of the day, I think this group really likes to win. They'd sacrifice a lot just to get a win."
South Carolina rolled in loose and carefree and sent Rosenblatt Stadium's last capacity mob home happy last summer. If it keeps playing, and winning, like it did this weekend against the team deemed the nation's best, it might just find itself welcoming the new place's first sellout crowd.