RALEIGH, N.C. — South Carolina baseball spent all day trying to bury its season in a grave.
Cole Messina packed a shovel.
South Carolina’s backstop hero added to his legend by catching three James Madison baserunners stealing, and with the Gamecocks down to their final out and trailing 7-5 in the ninth, he crushed a first-pitch game-tying two-run home run off Dukes’ closer Joe Vogatsky.
The Dukes intentionally walked Messina twice earlier in the game, but dared to challenge him with all the chips down.
"I felt like I just had to stay in the moment and be ready to hit no matter what," Messina said. "I'm not a fortune teller, I can't pick and choose when they walk me. I just had to stay locked in, stay focused and took a big swing."
The Gamecocks committed four errors, grounded into four double plays, had two base runners picked off and did everything a baseball team could conceivably due to give a game away but they found a way to pull it out in the 10th inning when Will Tippett hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to score Dylan Brewer, who was pinch running for Kennedy Jones after a lead-off walk and gave the Gamecocks an 8-7 victory.
"That was probably one of those games for the ages," Mark Kingston said. "I'm just glad we found a way to somehow, someway come out on top."
South Carolina (37-23) is now into the winner’s bracket of the Raleigh Regional, where it will face the winner of tonight’s NC State vs. Bryant game tomorrow at 6 p.m. ET for a spot in the regional final.
But right down to the final moments before Messina’s miracle moment, it did not look like this would be South Carolina’s day.
James Madison (34-24 ) took a 1-0 lead in the first inning thanks to the first of many South Carolina (36-24) mistakes when beleaguered third baseman Talmadge LeCroy fielded a bunt with a runner on first and threw the ball down the right field line, allowing the lad runner to score on an RBI groundout one batter later.
Even when the Gamecocks tied it up in the third on a Blake Jackson’s fielder’s choice in the third, it came with a caveat. After grounding into two inning-ending double plays in the first two innings, they stranded the bases loaded in the third even after tying the game.
A walk and a bunt single against Eli Jones put two on base for the Dukes in the fifth and chased starter Eli Jones, who gave way to Ty Good. Two RBI hits from Ryan Dooley and Fenwick Trimble plated a total of three runs to knock South Carolina into a 4-1 hole, only for a Will Tippett solo home run and a Blake Jackson two-run shot to knot things back at four.
"I'm not Cole Messina," Tippett said. "He goes up there and it seems like he goes up there every at-bat. I'm just trying to do my best to help the team win."
But then came the defense, and this was the real damage.
When a comebacker hit off Good’s foot and ricocheted straight to LeCroy for what should have been a lucky bounce and a routine out, he double-clutched and airmailed another throw into right field. Brendan O’Donnell knocked him in with an RBI single. And with two outs in the inning — when the frame already should have been over if not for the LeCroy blunder — the Dukes tacked on two more runs which ended up deciding the game when Trimble poked one inside the bag at third for a two-run double.
The scoring was done for James Madison, and that was all it took as South Carolina continued to shoot itself in the foot. Dukes’ reliever Donovan Burke picked off not one but two baserunners. A head-scratching Jackson bunt with South Carolina trailing by two took the bat out of Messina’s hands and squashed a seventh inning rally.
And when Vogatsky got Ethan Petry to ground into a 5-4-3 double play in the ninth, it looked like a wrap.
But Jackson got hit by a pitch, giving Messina one more chance.
Chris Veach got a heroic 14 outs out of the bullpen including a 1-2-3 frame in the 10th to keep South Carolina in it, and the offense pushed out one more run in the bottom half to move int the winner's bracket in improbable fashion.
"As we were creeping back we just wanted to put him out there so we would have that chance at the end," Kingston said.
One pitch, one chance, one moment was all South Carolina’s legend needed.
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