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Cole Messina blasts 2-out HR vs. James Madison, sends game to extra innings

Matt Connollyby:Matt Connolly•05/31/24•

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Cole Messina (Caroline Barry/GamecockCentral)

South Carolina star catcher Cole Messina didn’t get many opportunities to swing the bat against James Madison on Friday in the NCAA Tournament.

Messina had already been walked three times when he came to the plate in the ninth inning with the Gamecocks trailing 7-5. Needless to say, the junior made the most of his opportunity when the Dukes finally pitched to him.

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Cole Messina drilled the first pitch he saw for a two-run home run to send the game into extra innings. He got an opportunity to tie the game after Blake Jackson was hit on the previous pitch. Jackson was down to his final strike — in a 1-2 hole — before being hit by Joe Vogatsky. You can watch the big hit below:

South Carolina went on to win the game in 10 innings thanks to a sacrifice fly by Will Tippett. With runners on second and third and one out, the No. 9 hitter drilled a ball into deep centerfield, easily allowing the run to score.

Chris Veach earned the win for South Carolina, pitching the final 4 2/3 innings and allowing 2 runs.

The Gamecocks now advance to play the winner of NC State and Bryant on Saturday.

Mark Kingston called on South Carolina to execute vs. James Madison

Before Cole Messina came up with the big hit, head coach Mark Kingston joined ESPN and called for his team to execute against James Madison.

South Carolina committed four errors on the day in what was an ugly defensive showing.

“Yea, I think that’s a great word for us – settled. I think we got settled,” Kingston said of the early defensive struggles. “We were very excited to play at the beginning of the game. We’ve settled in and now we just need to execute offensively and defensively.”

South Carolina overcame the four errors and also overcame grounding into four double plays to come out on top. It wasn’t an easy win, but South Carolina found a way to get it done.

“You know, we’re playing hard as always and just got to get the ball in the air a little bit,” Kingston said. “A couple of double plays offensively hurt us, so we let them sink the ball on us and hit into those double plays. Other than that I think we’re taking good at bats and Eli is doing a really nice job for us.”