South Carolina offense comes to life after Kingston ejection to pick up win in finale

Mark Kingston was furious. Irate. Upset with what he just saw take place.

With two runners on, Caleb Denny checked his swing and went around for strike three to end the third inning. Sure, Kingston wasn’t happy about it, but there was more to it. He thought a pitch clock violation should’ve been called before the strikeout could happen. It would’ve been ball four and loaded the bases.

Without hesitation, Kingston stormed out of the dugout and the home-plate umpire quickly threw him out of the game.

“I think I was ejected for not what I said but because I was in the vicinity of the umpire trying to get an explanation, trying to see if we could get some help from some of the other umpires,” Kingston said. “We’ve had no trouble calling pitch clock violations and that one was clearly at zero.”

Since this was his second ejection of the season, he’ll be serving a one-game suspension later this week. But it might’ve been worth it to get his team going.

After trailing by as much as four runs, No. 3 South Carolina (35-8, 14-6 SEC) fought from behind all game long to win 8-7 over Auburn on Sunday.

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Just like the previous two games, it was a challenge to get through the first inning unscathed. After allowing one run, Matthew Becker had a chance to get out of it with two outs. But he then gave up back-to-back homers to put Auburn up by four.

An inning later, Becker was hurt by the long ball again, as Nate LaRue homered for the second day in a row. Once he faced the lineup the second time through, he settled in and pitched much better.

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Becker allowed two hits after the LaRue homer and sat down the last seven batters he faced. He’d make it through five innings with eight strikeouts and one walk.

“Early in the game, it looked like he might only give us three. So the fact that he got the last two innings, got us the fourth and the fifth, and got those extra six outs we didn’t have to get at the end, because you could see in an 8-7 ballgame you’re fighting to get those last few outs. And the fact that Matthew already got six of those earlier in the game was huge for who we could use late,” Kingston said.

While it wasn’t Becker’s best outing, it was more than enough to give his team a chance.

And that’s what happened. Soon after the Kingston ejection, the offense started to wake up. In the fourth, the Gamecocks got the bases loaded with two walks and a single. With how banged up the lineup was, it was their best chance to do something. On a 2-2 pitch, Michael Braswell laced a single into center field, scoring two runs to make it a one-run game.

In the following inning, South Carolina got a big break, as Auburn reliever Chase Allsup’s pickoff throw to second base went into center field, advancing two runners into scoring position. Carson Hornung proceeded to take advantage of the mistake by driving home a run on a sacrifice fly to tie the game.

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Minutes after South Carolina just fought back to tie the game, it was back to being a deficit again. Eli Jones came in to start the sixth and served up a solo shot to Bryson Ware on the third pitch he threw.

But the Gamecocks wouldn’t go away quietly like they had the previous two games of the series. Instead, Will Tippett, who came into the game hitting .135, crushed a three-run homer to give them their first lead of the weekend.

It was Tippett’s first home run as a Gamecock. As soon as he connected, he knew it was leaving the yard.

“I pointed at (Braylen) Wimmer because he kind of said that I was probably going to hit a grand slam or a three-run bomb or a two-run bomb. So just pointed at him and gave him some love,” Tippett said.

For the first time in the series, the offense and pitching were in sync with each other.

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With the lead now intact, the bullpen had a chance to lock the game down. Chris Veach came in the seventh and worked out of a minor jam but faced serious trouble in the eighth.

Auburn had the bases loaded with one out. The offense had been hitting well all series long. But in a true Houdini act, Veach got a pair of fly outs to end the threat.

Sitting at 35 pitches, Veach came back out for the ninth. It didn’t look to be the best choice, though, as Bobby Peirce homered on the first pitch. He exited the game with a runner on first.

“On the broadcast, it was obvious that Veach had gotten to where he was going to come out of the game. I knew Parker was going out,” Kingston said. “But I was waiting to see, when the panned to the bullpen, who was going to run of the bullpen because there were a number of different people it could be.”

Ultimately, it would come down to Nick Proctor, who would be tasked with trying to get the Gamecocks out of it.

“I had confidence that he could get the job done,” Kingston said. “Proctor has been really good for about the last month and thought it was a good decision.”

With a pinch-runner on first, Jonathan French made a heads up play and picked him off. After a one-out single, Proctor retired the next two batters to seal the deal.

It ends what was a tough weekend to say the least. South Carolina didn’t play as well as Auburn did for most of the series but managed to come up big before heading on the road.

“It felt like we were trying to peddle a bike uphill all weekend,” Kingston said. “Just to dig deep and find a way to win that game and keep our record in a really good spot both in the league and overall, I thought that was a huge thing for us to avoid the sweep there and find a way to win.”

Up next: South Carolina will head to Rock Hill to take on the Winthrop Eagles Wednesday night. First pitch is at for 6 p.m. on ESPN+.

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