Gamecocks grind past College of Charleston in 4-3 win

After South Carolina’s true freshman reliever pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the seventh inning to keep the Gamecocks within two runs, the offense drew a pair of bases loaded walks and scored on a balk to squeak past College of Charleston for a 4-3 victory at SEGRA Park.

“The key to the game was when Garino came in after [Aydin] Palmer,” Paul Mainieri said. “He saved the game for us, really.”

College of Charleston (12-6) took a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning on a bases loaded two-run single by designated hitter Schley Gordy, and had runners on the corner with nobody out and a chance to tack on runs. Garino picked up Palmer, and the rest of his team.

He struck out all three batters he faced in the seventh — with an intentional walk mixed in — and got the offense back in the dugout with a 3-1 deficit and an opportunity to claw back.

“It was just my fastball,” Garino said. “It felt like a million bucks, so I just went out and threw whatever was working.”

For most of the night, South Carolina’s (17-5) offense jumped at every opportunity to swing. An entire evening of swinging out of their shoes and chasing pitches — at one point 10 batters saw only a total of 22 pitches — left the offense with just one run on five hits heading to the seventh, a waste of another stellar outing from midweek starter Jarvis Evans Jr.

He did get a little bit of help from his defense in the second inning, though. After allowing an RBI double to College of Charleston (12-6) right fielder Will Baumhofer, Gordy followed up with a single to left field.

Baumhofer rounded third, but did not score thanks to an Evan Stone outfield assist and a Gavin Braland tag at the plate. At the moment, it preserved a 1-1 tie after KJ Scobey’s RBI single in the first inning opened the scoring.

It saved a run, and Evans cruised the rest of the way with another four innings. He only needed 83 pitches total, and Mainieri even hinted he might be available on Sunday at Arkansas because of his efficiency.

“What can you say about Jarvis Evans,” Mainieri asked rhetorically. “He gave us a chance again, like he’s done every week. He was just tremendous.”

Finally, the offense settled down and turned the game around. After Nathan Hall and Stone singled, Ethan Petry drew a walk. Those were few and far between on such an aggressive night, but his opened the floodgates.

Reliever Hayden Thomas could not find the strike zone, issuing back-to-back bases loaded walks to Kennedy Jones and Dalton Mashore to tie the game. And down 3-0 in the count to Braland, staring down his third consecutive free pass, he panicked and flinched towards first base.

An obvious balk, and the eventual game-winning run crossed automatically.

“The kid [Thomas] was pretty wild,” Mainieri said. “I’m not one for walking a lot. I like teaching the guys to hit. But if they’re going to give it to you, you’ve got to take it. At that point, I’d take the runs any way they were willing to give them to us.”

South Carolina, one way or another, is 7-0 in midweeks. Now the task? Turning around its SEC record with a road series at No. 3 Arkansas.

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