Marzilli’s glove, bat push Gamecocks to 6-4 win
South Carolina coach Ray Tanner isn’t ready to declare Evan Marzilli a better center fielder than Jackie Bradley Jr., who was drafted by the Red Sox in the first round after last season.
“If you had twins, would you love one more than the other?” Tanner said. “It’s pretty good. He was a guy that was a natural center fielder coming in here. Jackie ended up playing center, but he knew his day was coming too. ... I wouldn’t pick one over the other.”
Though Tanner said Marzilli’s defensive ability in center field — after not playing considerable time there in two years — hasn’t surprised him, he didn’t expect to see Marzilli make a challenging run-saving play in the ninth to give the Gamecocks a 6-4 win against Appalachian State.
When the Mountaineers’ Daniel Kassouf hit a ball to deep left center field, Tanner figured it would be a triple, but Marzilli was able to run it down, making the catch as he hit the fence of the visiting bullpen. Marzilli then relayed the ball to shortstop Joey Pankake, who flipped it to second baseman Erik Payne to get the runner on second out, ending the late rally by Appalachian State.
“Off the bat, I thought it was a home run,” Marzilli said. “I thought that it was going to be something I had to jump for. It stayed in the ballpark and I got a good enough read where I could get to it. I was lucky to come up with it.”
The Gamecocks (15-1) had to play catch-up from the beginning, as freshman pitcher Jordan Montgomery gave up two home runs in the first, putting USC in an early 4-0 hole.
But from there, the USC pitching staff would go on to retire 23 batters in a row, while the Gamecocks’ bats chipped away at the lead. After a Marzilli double brought in LB Dantzler for the first Gamecock run, Marzilli was back at the plate in the seventh with bases loaded and one run off the lead.
Marzilli doubled to deep left center, clearing the bases to give USC a 6-4 lead it wouldn’t relinquish. The night marked a career-high four RBIs for him.
“I’ve just kind of taken the approach of looking for certain pitches on certain counts and maybe not just free swinging like I was in the past,” Marzilli said. “That’s really what I just worked on in the offseason.”
With an unsteady middle infield that has seen four different faces at second and two at shortstop, Marzilli has been a consistent fixture for the Gamecocks, entering the Appalachian State game with a .317 batting average, leading the team in runs and reaching base in every game this season.
But for Tanner, it’s been the intangibles of Marzilli that has set the tone for the team.
“I told some of the young players to watch him play,” Tanner said. “It doesn’t matter if he’s 0-for-4, it doesn’t matter if he’s 2-for-4, he plays every day. He gives you the same thing every single day. He’s like any other player that gets frustrated at times when it’s not going good, but his approach is great, and that’s all you can really ask of a player.”
With Appalachian State’s only runs being home runs, Montgomery said that if a ball is hit to center that’s not over the fence, he has no doubt that Marzilli, or any of the outfielders, will be able to reach it.
For Tanner, that confidence in Marzilli and the other veterans from the rest of the team is part of what has propelled the Gamecocks to its nearly spotless record.
“When you get in a situation where you’re trying to play catch-up, you’re trying to get a few runs and trying to get some things to happen,” Tanner said. “As a coach, I’m always looking around that our guys are in a position — the veteran guys. ... You want to see your veteran guys because then you have a shot.”