Jack's takes from South Carolina's impressive comeback win
Going into the seventh inning on Sunday, South Carolina was trailing 4-1 to Missouri and couldn’t get anything going offensively. The bullpen had kept the Tigers’ bats at bay, leaving the door open to make a comeback.
Little by little, the hits started coming, which led to a pair of home runs in the inning to tie the game. From there, the Gamecocks would go on to earn a 9-4 win over Missouri. This marked their first series victory in CoMo since 2013.
Here are my takes from the win.
What a win
Winning in the SEC is tough. But winning on the road in this conference is as hard as it gets, even at a place like Missouri. South Carolina really had to bring it this weekend and play its best brand of baseball to get the job done. For the most part, it did that and won two of the three games.
But it took a lot of heroics to get the win in game three. There’s a good chance the Gamecocks don’t make this same comeback they did if it weren’t for a huge play in the second inning. With the bases loaded and one out, Missouri’s Jackson Lovich was robbed of a grand slam by Austin Brinling in left center field.
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Instead of taking a 7-1 lead, Missouri had to settle for a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1. But everyone knew how big that play was. After the game, Brinling told me that Ethan Petry came up to him and said that play just saved the game for them. And he would be right.
Later in the game, Petry tied the game with one swing, as he got a pitch over the plate and connected for a two-run homer to dead center. In the eighth and ninth, the offense scored five more runs to take a commanding lead for the rest of the game.
Had South Carolina lost this game, who knows what would’ve happened. The feeling of this entire season would be a lot different right now. But instead, hope lives on. The Gamecocks still have all their goals in front of them. It’s up to them to determine how the rest of this year goes.
Bullpen saved the day (again)
We can go on and on about how the offense came to life in the late going to win this game. But there’s no way South Carolina makes that comeback without the efforts from the pitching staff.
Unfortunately, starter Dylan Eskew just didn’t have it on Sunday. He pitched a clean first inning but ran into some issues of old with four walks. He’d throw 31 pitches and only record one out in the second before being pulled. The starting rotation will be a topic for another day. But let’s just say none of the three starters provided length this weekend.
With their work cut out for them, the Gamecocks turned to Garrett Gainey to get out of the jam. Obviously thanks in part to Brinling’s spectacular catch, he eventually did. And from there, the left-hander was dominant. He tossed 3.2 scoreless innings and struck out five without a walk.
His efforts gave way to Connor McCreery and Chris Veach both coming in after to lock the win down. On the day, the bullpen pitched 7.2 shutout innings and only gave up two hits. While Missouri’s offense is quite honestly not great, it doesn’t take anything away from how great this performance was. Hats off to the bullpen this weekend. Job well done.
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Cole Messina is on another level right now
After the game, I walked down to the field to do my postgame interviews with Mark Kingston and players like I had been doing all weekend. When I got down there, the vibes were immaculate. Everyone was in a good mood, obviously. Cole Messina was doing a postgame interview with the SEC Network Plus crew when he got doused in an ice cooler shower.
I could hear Blake Jackson continuously repeating the same phrase, “Cole Messina — SEC Player of the Week,” or something along those lines. I’d have to agree with him.
On Sunday, Messina went 3-for-5 with a double and a solo homer in the ninth. Including the midweek game from Wednesday, he finished 9-for-14 with seven runs scored, two doubles, a triple, three home runs, two stolen bases and 10 RBI. Just an all-around elite performance from the junior catcher.
