Baseball wins 2 Saturday after dropping 1st game
It took 17 games for the No. 1 Gamecocks to pick up their first loss of the season, but the inevitable happened Friday as the South Carolina baseball team fell to No. 12 Ole Miss.
However, the Gamecocks (18-1, 2-1 SEC) turned it around quickly, taking both games of a doubleheader on Saturday to claim the series against the Rebels (17-4, 1-2 SEC).
The second game of the doubleheader saw an impressive pitching duel in a 3-1 win for South Carolina. Gamecock freshman right-hander Wil Crowe moved to 4-0 on the year after going 5.1 innings, allowing one run on six hits with a walk and two strikeouts.
The bullpen came in and did what it has done all season with junior righty Cody Mincey pitching three scoreless innings and allowing just one hit. Junior closer Joel Seddon retired both batters he faced in the last frame to earn his sixth save of the season.
South Carolina’s bullpen has not allowed a run in 61.1 innings with the last run given up against Bucknell on opening day.
“We don’t really talk about (the streak) that much,” Mincey said. “We just try to go in there and get a win and win the series and throw strikes.”
The Gamecocks were able to get to Ole Miss starter Sam Smith through some small ball. With two outs and runners at the corners in the bottom of the fifth, junior center fielder Tanner English laid a successful bunt down the first base line to score junior Connor Bright and give the Gamecocks a 2-1 lead.
Junior Joey Pankake increased the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single to left field.
Nine innings were not enough to decide game-one of Saturday’s doubleheader. South Carolina came back from a three-run deficit with two outs in the bottom of the ninth innings to beat Ole Miss 5-4 in 10 innings.
Bright hit an RBI single and then sophomore second baseman Max Schrock, not in the starting lineup with an ankle injury, came on to pinch hit and tied the game with a two-run homer.
Contrary to what the result would suggest, Schrock said after the game that his approach during that at-bat was not one for power.
“(My mindset) definitely wasn’t home run,” he said. “The guy on the mound was good, and I had two strikes on me so I was more so trying to stay up the middle and keep the inning alive, and it just so happened I saw a pitch up and put a good swing on it.”
Senior Brison Celek was the hero in the 10th inning, coming through with a walk-off RBI single as a pinch hitter.
Seddon earned his first win of the season after freshman reliever Reed Scott kept the Gamecocks in the game with six scoreless innings where he struck out six batters and allowed only three hits. Sophomore left-hander Jack Wynkoop lasted just three innings, giving up four runs with two unearned on seven hits and one strikeout.
In Friday’s loss, Rebel Auston Bousfield hit a two-out grand slam in the top of the sixth inning to help the Rebels achieve a 6-4 win.
Schrock hit a solo homer in the bottom of the first inning and has four on the season now after the Ole Miss series. Junior Jordan Montgomery earned his first loss of the season, falling to 3-1 on the year. He pitched six innings, allowing six earned runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts.
Although South Carolina dropped its first game of the season to Ole Miss, coach Chad Holbrook considered the weekend a success having claimed the series against the Rebels.
“Some days, baseball puts you at a loss for words and I kind of felt that way today, especially after game one,” he said. “I have a resilient group of players who always believe that they can win the game and they found a way to do it when the odds were stacked against them.”