Pitcher Matt Price moves back to former closing role in win
With the third round of NCAA Tournament games being played, right-handed pitcher Matt Price found himself trending in the United States on Twitter above top-seeded Michigan State, which was losing to Louisville.
Price exited the bullpen, a place he hadn’t been in 21 games, in relief for starting pitcher Michael Roth, sending the sellout crowd at Carolina Stadium into a tweeting tizzy.
“I was surprised when I saw Matt running in,” Roth said. “I knew there was potential for him to come in, but I didn’t know if he was coming in then.”
The coaches had talked to Price about the possibility of coming out of the bullpen a couple of days ago, if it was a close first game. With the game tied at 2 at the top of the seventh, Price went from the dugout to the bullpen, and it didn’t take long for him to start throwing. It also didn’t take long for him to look like his usual self, keeping the Gators scoreless en route to South Carolina’s 9-3 win that came just a day after the Gamecocks’ fourth loss in five games.
“He was pretty special when he got there,” said USC coach Ray Tanner. “Will it be permanent? I don’t know — possibly. We’ll see how everything falls.”
Price struck his first batter out on a 91 mph fastball to get the Gamecocks to the bottom of the inning with a runner on second. The run support came quickly, as in the bottom of the seventh, Tanner pinch-hit freshman Kyle Martin for catcher Grayson Greiner, who had struck out at each trip to the plate.
With the bases loaded and on a 1-0 count, Martin slapped a ball into shallow right field to bring center fielder Evan Marzilli and first baseman Christian Walker home, giving the Gamecocks a 4-2 lead.
Martin had been put in a similar situation against Clemson, where he had a runner in scoring position and had to enter the game cold in a pinch-hit situation.
“Going in like that, you look for a pitch to hit and you just try to get the next guy up,” Martin said. “[Tanner] told me to get a pitch to hit and hit a [sacrifice] fly — that’s about it.”
The runs were redemption for the bottom of the first, when the Gamecocks had the bases loaded with no outs, but were unable to score any runs after Florida starter Hudson Randall fanned the next three batters.
“We blew an opportunity and we know it, but we busted it open in the seventh,” Roth said. “We were able to respond, and I think that shows a lot of toughness, which is something I was talking about last night.”
After the Gamecocks’ loss to Wofford, Roth said the team needed to grow up as a unit, and it needed to do it fast. With the No. 1 team in town, Tanner opted to have more maturity on the field, so he had Roth hit for himself, not having a designated hitter until Price came in the game.
With Price pitching Thursday, the starter for tonight’s game is to be determined, though Tanner said it would likely be between Tyler Webb or Forrest Koumas. While the Gamecocks still have questions to be answered off the pitchers’ mound as well, the win over the team USC beat in the national championship was a step forward.
“I don’t think we were trying to make a statement to Florida or anybody,” Roth said. “I think we were trying to make a statement to ourselves to prove that we can still play and just get out of that funk we were in.”