Gamecocks' season ends with loss to Virginia
The difference in South Carolina surviving and advancing and being eliminated could be one of the more unusual double plays you’ll see in a baseball game.
Trailing by a run in the seventh with runners at first and second, Joe Satterfield ripped a ball up the middle on a line, and it appeared like the pitcher snared it.
Runners froze, Virginia’s Zach Messinger bobbled it, fired to third, then the third baseman fired to second and when all was said and don there were two outs and a runner only at first.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before on a baseball field. He cracked it up the middle,” Brennan Milone said. “Nine times out of 10 that gets up the middle and that’s a run-scoring single. Then it falling out of the glove, too, even if he caught it, it would have been better. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
That all-important seventh inning got off to a great start with Milone shrinking Virginia’s lead to one run after a leadoff homer to left field, followed by back-to-back singles by Braylen Wimmer and Colin Burgess.
“After that happened, I thought we were going to come back and win the game. It’s definitely very frustrating cause it feels like it’s been that way all year. We fought really, really hard,” Milone said. “Sometimes you come up short. That’s what happened today.”
With Messinger on the ropes after three-straight hits, head coach Mark Kingston opted to not bunt both runners into scoring position, something he did in a similar spot Saturday night.
Neither situation ended in the Gamecocks (34-23) getting a run. South Carolina got another hit in the inning, a single from George Callil, but Brady Allen struck out to end the rally in the seventh in what turned into a season-ending 3-2 loss to the Cavaliers.
“Decisions are only judged by: did it work or not? You can’t account for unlucky bounces, can’t account for freak double plays,” Mark Kingston said.
“Whatever happens you have to live with it. You can’t account for bad bounces or bad luck. That’s what happened on that play. That ball goes anywhere else and now we’re really rolling. Instead it turned into one of the more freak double plays we’ve seen. It was tough to watch. It’s open of those plays where it feels like it’s in slow motion cause you can’t believe it’s happening. It did, and we have to live with it.”
The Gamecocks, like most games this season fell behind early, couldn’t complete the comeback with the offense struggling to get a timely hit, especially late.
South Carolina would get seven hits—the most in their regional this weekend—but stranded six and hit just 3-for-15 with runners on base and went hitless in four at-bats with a runner in scoring position.
The team’s season ends after back-to-back losses, each by one run.
It wasted another fantastic bullpen outing with Julian Bosnic and Daniel Lloyd tossing 5.1 shutout innings with six strikeouts after starter Brannon Jordan (5-6, 4.78 ERA) gave up three runs in the first three innings.
“Last night you’re a hit away from being in the drivers’ seat. It doesn’t go your way and you have to get up at seven in the morning the next day. That’s not an easy thing for these guys to do,” Kingston said. “They came out ready to go. Like last night, we were one hit short. We pitched great. The bullpen was unbelievable all weekend but we were one hit short for the second night in a row.”