Baseball Takes Advantage of Vanderbilt Mistakes In 8-4 Game One Win
Not vintage, but they all count the same.
South Carolina baseball needed a couple breaks to get over the finish line in game one of its three-game series against Vanderbilt at Founders Park, but heavily cashed in on them. The Gamecocks scored five runs off two Vanderbilt errors in the seventh inning to break a 2-2 tie, eventually winning 8-4.
The tide turned with two outs and a runner on second in the bottom of the seventh when Parker Noland hit a dribbler to first base which should have ended the inning. But Vanderbilt's (19-3, 3-1 SEC RJ Austin bobbled the ball, allowing all hands to reach safely. Cole Messina followed it up with a bouncer to third which also could have ended the frame, but Vanderbilt third baseman Davis Diaz failed to scoop it up on his backhand. Technically the play was scored a hit, but it was still a defensive mistake which allowed the go-ahead run to score.
And after a Kennedy Jones walk and an Ethan Petry battle which saw the superstar clean-up hitter run the count full after falling behind 0-2, Petry lifted one to center. A windy Columbia afternoon knocked it down on the warning track, just missing out on a thumping grand slam.
It knocked it all the way down and out of Calvin Hewett's glove in center, the bigget play of the game. What should have been a flyout turned into a three-run error, really four moments later when Talmadge LeCroy singled Petry home.
"It just speaks to what we're capable of," Mark Kingston said about the offense. "We haven't been that a whole lot this year, but we have maintained confidence on the inside that we will get there, that we are capable of that because we've seen it a million times in the past."
South Carolina (17-5, 2-2 SEC) was in position to win thanks to an exceptional outing from ace Eli Jones. In fact, it was perfect for most of the day.
Jones retired the first 18 batters he faced, getting 13 of those outs via strikeouts and groundouts as he baffled Vanderbilt's lineup all afternoon. An Austin single in the seventh finally snapepd the perfect streak, but did little to take away from how special his day was even after the Commodores scord twice in the frame to tie the score.
It was exactly the sort of performance South Carolina needed from its ace to pick up the team after a series loss in Oxford last weekend, and to preserve the bullpen in game one of a doubleheader.
"It's defintiely a lot of pride," Jones said. "It's one of those things I've worked very, very hard for my whole life, and it's good knowing that a little bit of it has paid off. We've got a really deep pitching staff and I'd be happy giving the ball to anybody, but I'm the type of guy that I have the most trust in myself. When I'm on the mound, I trust myself to get the job done."
Chris Veach was the only Gamecock reliever who pitched heavily in game one, leaving Kingston pretty much a full array of options for both game two Saturday and Sunday's series finale. Veach very nearly carried it all the way to the finish line in direct relief of Jones, although Vanderbilt strung a walk and two hits together in the ninth to force a pitching change.
Garrett Gainey jogged in from the bullpen, threw four pitches, and ended the game with a groundball to second base.
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