South Carolina completes comeback to earn series win over Missouri

Ethan Petry couldn’t even lie. Off the bat, he thought it was a no-doubter. And not many would’ve blamed him for thinking so.

Already leading by three in the second inning, Missouri’s Jackson Lovich hit a long fly ball to left center field. If it left the yard, it would be a grand slam to give the Tigers a 7-1 lead.

But after being burned by a fly ball on Saturday, Austin Brinling wasn’t letting that happen again.

“The wind was blowing slightly in, so when we hit that ball in the air, I kind of knew I had a chance,” Brinling said.

As he timed the play perfectly, Brinling leaped at the top of the left center field wall and robbed Lovich of a potential dagger. Instead, Missouri had to settle for a sacrifice fly.

“As soon as he caught it, I said that’s going to save the game,” Petry said. “Even the kid at first base, Brock Daniels, he said, ‘That’s going to save the game right there.'”

And save the game it did. While it was still very early in the game, this play became the difference maker for South Carolina. After trailing for most of Sunday afternoon, the No. 15 Gamecocks came from behind to pick up a 9-4 win over the Tigers.

The win gives South Carolina (32-15, 13-11 SEC) its first series victory in CoMo since 2013.

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When the team got back to the dugout after getting out of the inning, they still felt they had a good chance to come back and win the game.

“We all believed that. We’re a pretty gritty team,” Brinling said. “We know we can hang with the best of them, and we’re going to score a lot of runs day in and day out. Everyone in the dugout was waiting for the right time to shine.”

Still trailing by three runs going into the seventh, the offense struggled to do much up to that point. But Dalton Reeves led off the frame with a solo homer into right to give South Carolina some life.

Later in the inning with two outs and a runner on second, Missouri right-hander Bryce Mayer was behind in a 1-0 count. And with Ethan Petry at the plate, he made the unwise decision to leave his next pitch in the zone. As a result, Petry lifted a two-run homer into deep center to tie the game at four.

“He was throwing fastballs that were running up, they were riding up and running in,” Petry said. “So I stood off the plate a little bit and he ended up hanging a cutter. And I drove it out to center field. That’s kind of my bread and butter is going to the opposite field.”

In the next inning, South Carolina would retake the lead, as Reeves laid down a perfect bunt. A bad throw from third that sailed into right field allowed Blake Jackson to score easily from second.

That wouldn’t be all for the Gamecock offense, though. Gavin Casas brought home another run with an RBI single, followed by a sacrifice fly off the bat of Brinling. Just like that, it was a 7-4 game.

“This team has a lot of heart, this team has a lot of fight. There’s no doubt about it. I think today was just another example of that,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “Once we got it going, we couldn’t be stopped. It was a lot of fun to watch. Our bullpen came in and was just dominant. And we finally got our offense going again. It was just a very, very big win for us.”

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Any chance at a comeback wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for South Carolina’s bullpen stepping up. After a brief start from Dylan Eskew, who only lasted 1.1 innings, Garrett Gainey came in and looked about as good as he has all season.

The left-hander tossed 3.2 scoreless innings and gave up just one hit. He struck out five and didn’t surrender any walks. It was an overall great weekend for Gainey, who also pitched 2.1 scoreless innings and struck out five on Friday.

After that, Connor McCreery came in and picked up right where Gainey left off. Before a weather delay with two outs in the eighth, the right-hander gave up one hit and struck out four with a walk in 2.2 innings of work.

Once the delay came to an end, Chris Veach came in and got a quick strikeout to end the eighth. Cole Messina would complete his big weekend with a solo homer in the ninth to extend the lead to four.

“Bullpen was absolutely dominant, absolutely dominant,” Kingston said. “All three guys looked great, looked exactly how we need them to pitch if we’re going to go far. And so, it was a big pick me up. I told the team Eskew picked us up last week, and they picked him up today.”

Messina finished the series going 7-for-11 with two homers, a double, triple and seven RBIs.

Veach came back out for the ninth and sealed the deal after a two-out walk. As a whole, the bullpen gave up no runs on two hits and struck out 11.

Up next: South Carolina will wrap up its four-game roadtrip and midweek slate against Winthrop in Rock Hill on Tuesday night. First pitch is at 6 p.m. on ESPN Plus.

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