Bride's heads-up play proves to be difference in 3-2 win

It was a little unconventional, but it got the job done. And it proved to be the difference in a tight game.

In the seventh inning of Friday’s game, South Carolina was clinging to a 2-1 run lead when Jonah Bride blasted a one-out triple to left-center as the ball glanced off the centerfielder’s glove and ping-ponged around the outfield wall.

The next play would be the biggest offensive play of the Gamecocks Friday. LT Tolbert struck out and the ball got away from catcher Matt Byars. As he lobbed the ball to first, Bride took off, sprinting 90 feet home and slid in safe.

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That gave them a 3-1 lead and would be the difference Friday as Gamecocks (10-5) beat Michigan State 3-2.

“It’s all instinctive and on his own. What Jonah is, is a baseball player. He saw their catcher throw the ball down to first early in the game to be sure he didn’t let it go,” head coach Chad Holbrook said. “He saw it earlier in the game and instinctively he thought he might have some time to score. He felt it was the right opportunity to try it and he did. It was obviously the difference in the game.”

Bride saw the potential opportunity when he was on second base in the fifth inning. Tolbert struck out and the ball got away again, and the junior noticed the lackadaisical throw to first base.

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He saw his opportunity in the seventh, taking off on his own and making a big play in a highly contested game.

“He was locked in right there. That was huge,” Madison Stokes, who was waiting in the on-deck circle at the time, said. “That was a game-changer I think for him to see that and take that.”

It was his ninth run scored this season, which is tied for second on the team. The triple that sparked the play was the first of his career.

Holbrook said that Bride didn’t talk to the coaches about the play beforehand in the dugout and that it was all on the third baseman’s instincts.

“There are some other guys that I worry if they’re picking up, but not Jonah,” Holbrook said. “He knows what pitchers are trying to do; he knows what pitchers are trying to do defensively. He’s like a coach on the field.”