This time, Tanner’s hunches came in the form of Jackie Bradley Jr. and Brady Thomas, two heroes of 2010’s Omaha experience. Both had strikes against them — Bradley in only his second game back from a wrist injury that was believed to be a season-ending one, and Thomas with a horrid 0-4 day at the plate the game prior along with a nagging left ankle — but Tanner stuck with them, penciling Bradley into the cleanup spot and Thomas into the six-hole.
Both rewarded Tanner’s faith, and did so immediately.
After committing a fielding error on Sunday night that led to four enemy runs being score in the top of the first, USC third baseman Christian Walker hit a chopper in the opening moments of Tuesday’s affair that led to a Virginia error. Three runs in the Gamecocks’ favor followed.
After the two-out error, Bradley singled, allowing Walker to score from first as the ball was slowed on the wet TD Ameritrade Park turf. An Adrian Morales single followed, bringing Bradley home. A second UVA error, this one of the throwing variety, left the field of play, allowing Morales to move to third, where he was able to walk home soon after when Thomas doubled to center for USC’s third straight hit, making it 3-0 before Peter Mooney struck out to end the inning.
The Gamecocks (52-14) would add another run in the third, again due to two-out success. Morales and Thomas recorded back-to-back singles, then an Evan Marzilli bloop hit to right center brought home Morales and a 4-0 advantage. A John Hicks solo shot would give UVA (55-11) life in the fourth, and its bases loaded, one out situation in the fifth after two more USC runs brought a glimmer of hope — that is, until USC reliever John Taylor entered the game and promptly induced a 1-2-3 double play.
From there, it was clockwork. Another No. 1 team defeated. Bradley goes 2-5 with an RBI while Thomas goes 3-4 with one as well.
Taylor (7-1 now, in a bit of irony) gets the win after throwing 4.1 innings of 1-hit ball in relief of Colby Holmes, who wasn’t even on the travel roster for Omaha last year but started and threw a solid 4.1 innings for the Gamecocks.
UVA righty Will Roberts, he of a perfect game earlier in the season against George Washington and mind-boggling stats, gets touched up for six runs and eight hits in 3.1 innings of work to take the loss (11-2).
Oh, and Ray’s hunches work once again. After waiting 30 years to get there, USC is guaranteed to spend the entirety of its stay in the winners’ side — an area 18 of the last 21 national champs have emerged from.
USC won its College World Series opener — after losing its first games in its last seven trips to Omaha — on Sunday night with a dramatic 5-4 win over Texas A&M, in large part thanks to Wingo, who ended the game with a walk-off RBI over a drawn-in Aggie outfield and off the right field wall, bringing home Beary with the winning run.
Wingo’s line drive, which came with no outs, was the fourth game-winning hit the Mauldin native has compiled this season. It broke what had been almost eight consecutive innings of scoreless play between the two teams after a wild and ugly first inning of play.
A&M struck first against USC ace Michael Roth, plating four unearned runs in the first after a Christian Walker error allowed the leadoff hitter to reach base. However, the Gamecocks didn’t blink, adding four runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame, with a key Aggie throwing error serving as the turning point.
Closer Matt Price, who nailed down the final out against UVA, took the win for USC over the Aggies, while Kyle Martin took the loss for Texas A&M, which was eliminated from the field after falling to Cal (38-22), which lost to UVA 4-1 on Sunday in its opener, 7-3 in the losers’ bracket game on Tuesday.
Now those two will meet Thursday, with the loser leaving town and the winner facing USC, needing two wins in two days before the Gamecocks get one.