Tippett's big night, bullpen make difference in South Carolina's midweek win over The Citadel

Heading into the seventh inning, the South Carolina bats were as cold as ice. After getting off to a good start on the night, the Gamecocks (26-11, 8-7 SEC) couldn’t buy another big hit as the game wore on.

That was until Will Tippett decided to do something about it.

After working the count full, Tippett got just the pitch he was looking for. A breaking ball left right over the heart of the zone. If this were a few weeks ago, he might’ve not put good metal on the ball. But ever since making the switch to hitting solely right-handed, he didn’t miss it.

Tippett gave it more than just a ride, crushing the 3-2 pitch over the left field scoreboard and into the many palm trees off in the distance. It was the big swing of the night in No. 20 South Carolina’s 4-3 win over The Citadel.

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Ever since Mark Kingston spoke last Wednesday about how Tippett’s bat would catch up with his glove, he’s only been proven right. The sophomore shortstop is now 6-for-15 in his last four games, including four extra base hits.

“We’ve had him now for two years. We’ve seen him switch hitting for two years. And a great majority of his highlights have been from the right side of the plate,” Kingston said. “His homer against Clemson, last year against Auburn, 4-for-5 in the SEC Tournament against Georgia in the SEC Tournament last year. There was just too much track record now to know that he was much better on his natural side. We just needed to go with it. Obviously, it’s been a huge spark for our offense.”

But outside of Tippett, who also flashed the leather more than once in the win, it wasn’t a big night offensively for South Carolina. Ethan Petry and Dalton Reeves both had RBI hits in the first. Kennedy Jones had a sacrifice fly in the third. Other than that, there wasn’t much to cheer about.

Instead, this game would really come down to the bullpen. And after Tyler Pitzer pitched 2.1 innings of two-run ball, the Gamecocks had to use a slew of relief pitchers to make it the rest of the way.

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Jake McCoy and Parker Marlatt each tossed 1.1 scoreless innings before turning the ball over to Connor McCreery in the sixth.

“We had Pitzer as a freshman, McCoy’s a freshman, Marlatt’s a freshman. I thought the freshmen did a really nice job tonight. All of them showed poise,” Kingston said. “This was a great environment here. It was a packed stadium, it was loud, it was emotional. So I’m really proud with all those pitchers and how they did.”

McCreery would retire the side in order to open his outing. But the seventh would be a different story.

With two outs, the right-hander got himself into a bases loaded jam and threw a wild pitch to cut the lead to one. But he’d get out of further trouble with a groundout to second to end the threat.

Tasked with getting the final six outs of the game, Garrett Gainey worked around a minor jam in the eighth as the Bulldogs left a runner stranded at second. After giving up a leadoff double to Sawyer Reeves, who is Dalton Reeves’ brother, Gainey locked back in and retired the next three batters to seal the deal.

“It’s always a good feeling, man,” Gainey said. “I love going out there in those types of situations, especially with runners on base. Getting out of those jams and getting the fans fired up is what you live for.”

Up next: South Carolina will head back home to open a huge three-game series with Arkansas on Friday. First pitch is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network Plus. The Gamecocks have yet to name a starting pitcher, though Eli Jones (3-1, 3.57 ERA) would be in line to pitch on his normal rest.

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