South Carolina pitching, late offense powers Gamecocks to midweek win

Late in a one-run game, South Carolina sat in a precarious situation.

North Florida had the go-ahead run at second base when a dribbler was hit to Josiah Sightler, who tagged the runner out before first base and zipped the ball to second to catch the runner off the bag for a threat-ending double play.

“It was huge,” “The decision there was what do you do with your pull-side corner guy? Do you put him back or do you put him in?” Mark Kingston said. “We decided to go both corners in and the middle back. It was fortunate for us. If he’s back, the tying run scores there.”

Eight pitches later, in the bottom of the inning, Sightler was cranking a home run out to right-centerfield to stamp a 4-2 South Carolina win.

As he rounded home, Sightler got to don the newest home run celebration garb: a coonskin cap.

“It showed up today,” he said, smiling. “It was in the locker room and I was like let’s go with it.”

The Gamecocks (16-16, 4-8 SEC) held on to win, using one of their better rotational arms to close it out.

Matthew Becker, the typical Sunday starter, picked up his second save of the year with two scoreless innings Tuesday night. Four days removed from picking up a save in relief against Georgia, he came out of the bullpen again to the tune of 30 pitches and three strikeouts.

It puts the rotation in flux with the potential now of Becker pitching in relief Thursday or Friday or starting game three Saturday afternoon against Ole Miss.

“It’s something SEC teams have done for a long, long time is to have guys you use as a swingman. He’s helped us win games as a starter but can help us close out games like he did tonight,” Kingston said. “He’s willing to do it and he’s versatile. Until we get one or two more guys we feel really good about there we’ll have to continue to be creative.”

South Carolina jumped out to an early two-run lead, getting both on RBI groundouts, but that lead was short-lived at the time.

After Cam Tringali (1-0) walked two batters, he gave up a game-tying RBI double to Abraham Sequera. It was North Florida’s first hit of the day, which came in the sixth inning.

The Gamecocks also continue to get good outings from Eli Jones, who looked crisp in his third outing removed from Tommy John surgery. The true freshman pitched a nearly-perfect 2.2 innings, striking out three before hitting a batter to end his outing.

“It feels really good. In the fall and early spring, it’s hard to be in the dugout and not help the team,” Jones said. “Coming back these last few weeks it feels really good.”

He threw 34 pitches, 22 for strikes, and the bullpen backed him up after that. Five Gamecock relievers threw and gave up just two runs—both on the double—while striking out six.

The offense was largely quiet through the first few innings outside of those RBI groundouts. It took until the sixth, after North Florida tied things up, to show some life again.

Colin Burgess launched a go-ahead solo homer to the visitors’ bullpen before Sightler’s lead-extending shot in the seventh.

The offense did it without one of its best hitters, Brandt Belk, who missed Tuesday’s game due to illness. Kevin Madden is dealing with an arm injury and was the designated hitter against the Ospreys while Talmadge LeCroy played third.

“(Belk) was sick today. He was throwing up all night. He couldn’t get out of bed from a sickness. It’s nice we were able to scratch out a win without him. Kevin’s dealing with a bit of an arm injury right now. That’s why he DH’d and LeCroy played third,” Kingston said. “Nothing’s easy for us. Nothing’s smooth. We just have to keep plugging.”

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