GamecockCentral.com - Gamecocks fall short in bid for Omaha

June 12, 2006

Scott Hood
GamecockCentral.com Staff Writer

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ATHENS - South Carolina's hopes of making it to Omaha for the fourth time in five seasons were buried under a Georgia avalanche.

The Gamecocks and Bulldogs engaged in a tight, tense battle before Georgia erupted for seven runs in the seventh inning to pull away for an 11-6 victory in the third and deciding game of the Athens Super Regional before a record crowd of 4,302 at Foley Field.

Georgia ? now 11-0 in home elimination games - will face Rice in the opening round of the College World Series on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.

USC won the opening game of the Super Regional, 15-6, behind eight homers but lost two straight to a Georgia team that was forced to come from behind for the second weekend in a row.

"We came in here and won the first game and put them behind the eight ball a little bit," USC head coach Ray Tanner said. "They came back in a big way and threw some runs on the board. They certainly were the best team in this Super Regional and deserved to advance. I wish them well in Omaha."

Monday's defeat marks the second straight season USC has been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament without making it to the cathedral of college baseball - Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha.

The Gamecocks made it to Omaha in three consecutive years (2002-2004) before falling short the last two years against schools from the Peach State.

USC completed Ray Tanner's 10th season as head coach with a 41-25 record, the second straight season the Gamecocks have won 41 games.

Nine walks, two hit batters and a pair of critical errors ended up being USC's undoing in the final game of the season.

"You can't do that against an opponent like Georgia," Tanner said. "It's very hard to win games when you have those kind of numbers. They're going to get double-digit hits. You throw that many other opportunities up and it's difficult to overcome that."

USC starter Wynn Pelzer battled for six innings before things went awry in the seventh. Pelzer allowed eight runs on seven hits with seven walks and three strikeouts.

The seven free passes were a career-high for Pelzer.

"The biggest problem I had tonight was command of my pitches," Pelzer said. "Against a team like Georgia, you give them free baserunners and they take advantage of stuff like that."

Ahead 4-3, Georgia secured its trip to Nebraska with a nightmarish seven-run seventh inning for USC that featured a leadoff homer, two triples, two walks, and two errors.

After playing with fire for several innings, Pelzer finally got burned in the seventh. He surrendered a leadoff homer to Bobby Felmy that gave the Bulldogs a 5-3 lead.

But Georgia was just getting started.

After an infield single, a pair of errors and a walk, Pelzer's seventh free pass of the night, Tanner had seen enough from his hard-throwing, yet inconsistent, sophomore righthander.

"I appreciate Coach Tanner having faith in me to send me out there," Pelzer said. "But you have to be better in situations like this. It's a one-game shootout. We'll take this and learn from it."

Junior righthander Chase Tucker took the mound and registered a strikeout for the first out. But a two-run single and two-run triple drove Tucker from the mound and gave Georgia a 9-3 lead.

Conor Lalor, with just one appearance since the end of April, came on and surrendered a walk and triple before getting out of the inning with the Gamecocks trailing, 11-3.

Pelzer kept Georgia off the scoreboard until Georgia converted a walk and three singles into a pair of runs in the third. Joey Side and Josh Morris had run-scoring hits for the Bulldogs.

"I felt tonight the way Wynn came out of the blocks he had great stuff," Tanner said. "I really felt we were going to have our opportunities to win, which we did except for the seven-run seventh. His stuff was outstanding. He had a little trouble harnessing it at times but he battled hard for us."

The time it took USC to respond lasted barely more than the commercial break between at-bats. Havens led off the bottom of the third with his fourth homer of the season, a solo blast to right-center.

Chris Brown followed with a ringing double off the left field wall. After Neil Gielser popped up, Smoak lined a double to almost the exact spot in left that Brown placed his two-bagger, scoring him with the tying run.

Two batters later, USC took a 3-2 lead when Georgia shortstop Gordon Beckham threw wildly to first to allow Smoak to scamper home from second with the go-ahead run.

After contributing with his bat, Havens flashed some leather in the top of the fourth with a diving stop of a smash by Wyatt. Havens jumped to his feet and fired to first to get the speedy Wyatt and end the inning.

After getting two quick outs in the fifth, Pelzer experienced a sudden bout of wildness. He hit a batter, walked two more (questionable ball four call to the second batter) and hit another batter to force home the tying run.

Pelzer got Peisel to foul out to third to finally end the inning.

Pelzer's wildness cost him again in the top of the sixth when, after walking the first two batters of the inning, he uncorked a two-out wild pitch with a runner at third.

The ill-timed pitch gave Georgia a 4-3 lead.

Ahead for the first time since scoring the first two runs of the game in the third, Georgia turned to one of its best pitchers out of the bullpen.

Rip Warren, one of the top middle relievers in the SEC, took over for Trevor Holder to start the sixth. The southpaw walked Crisp to open the inning but retired the next three hitters.

After Georgia's seventh-inning explosion, USC scored single runs in the seventh (solo homer by Chris Brown), eighth (run-scoring single by pinch-hitter Cheyne Hurst) and ninth (triple and groundout) but it was too little, too late for the Gamecocks.

"I was proud of our guys' effort," Tanner said. "Even at the end we battled hard. We took some good hacks there at the end of the game. Georgia has a great club."

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Reese Havens. The freshman had a solo homer in the third inning and made a great defensive play to end the Georgia fourth.

KEY MOMENT: With Georgia leading, 4-3, entering the top of the seventh, Pelzer allowed the first four batters to reach base. USC committed two errors during that stretch. The Bulldogs went onto score seven runs and with its great bullpen lurking all but closed out out.

HOW THE RUNS SCORED:

UGA 3rd ? Dunn walked, Wyatt singled to left, Side singled to right (RBI), Beckham reached on fielder's choice (1-6), Morris singled to center (RBI), Felmy grounded out to pitcher, Jacobs grounded out to third. TWO RUNS.

USC 3rd ? Havens homered to right (RBI), Brown doubled to left, Giesler popped to third, Smoak doubled to left, Disher grounded to third, Crisp singled to short, Smoak scored on throwing error (E6), Grinestaff struckout. THREE RUNS.

UGA 5th ? Side grounded to first, Beckham grounded to shoer, Morris hit by pitch, Felmy walked, Jacobs walked, Olson hit by pitch (RBI), Peisel fouled out to third. ONE RUN.

UGA 7th ? Felmy homered to left (RBI), Jacobs singled to pitcher, reached second on throwing error (E1), Olson reached on fielding error (E5), Peisel walked, , Dunn struckout, Wyatt singled to center (2 RBI), Side tripled to center (2 RBI), (LALOR FOR TUCKER>, Beckham walked, Morris struckout, Felmy tripled (2 RBI), Jacobs flied to right. SEVEN RUNS.

USC 7th ? Havens popped to short, Brown homered to left, Gielser struckout, Smoak grounded to third. ONE RUN.

USC 8th ? Disher grounded to shortstop, Crisp flied to center, , Grinestaff walked, Paxton doubled to left, , Hurst (PH) singled to left (RBI), Havens lined to second. ONE RUN.

USC 9th ? Brown tripled to center, Giesler grounded to first (RBI), Smoak lined to right, Disher struckout. ONE RUN.

SUPER REGIONAL RESULTS (Mon. June 12)
Georgia 11, USC 6 (UGA wins 2-1)
Rice 9, Oklahoma 5 (Rice wins 2-1)
Miami (Fla.) 14, Ole Miss 9 (UM wins 2-1)

The following teams have advanced to the College World Series: Georgia, Rice, Miami, Oregon State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Cal State-Fullerton and North Carolina.

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