Gamecocks Slug Four Homers, Clinch Series Over No. 3 Vanderbilt
In one day, the vibes changed immeasurably.
South Carolina baseball woke up Saturday under .500 in SEC play and without a win over a ranked opponent all year.
It left the day with a series win over the No. 3 team in the nation and a winning record in the league.
After an 8-4 victory in game one of the doubleheader, South Carolina thumped No. 3 Vanderbilt 8-3 in game two at Founders Park to clinch the series and set up an opportunity for a sweep tomorrow.
"It'd be hard to think that you could play better than we did today," Mark Kingston said. "Against the No. 3 team in the country on a long winning streak, our guys were incredible all day."
Ethan Petry was the star of the day, picking up where he left off by reaching base all four times in the first game by doing it again. It was three walks and an error in game one, but this time he took run-scoring matters more into his own hands.
Petry crushed two home runs, one out to left field and the other to right. It started in the second inning when he tied the score 1-1 with a towering blast off Vanderbilt (19-5, 3-2 SEC) starter Bryce Cunningham, and then an opposite field missile onto the berm in right field against reliever Brennan Seiber in the sixth.
"It's been awesome," Petry said. "One throuh four is just power, and then you've got the guys seven through nine, it's speed. It just sets it up; everything sets up perfectly."
Still even with Petry’s perfect day, South Carolina (18-5, 3-2 SEC) was on the ropes in the middle innings. Vanderbilt built a 3-1 advantage against starter Dylan Eskew and reliever Ty Good, as the two fought traffic on the bases all day. Runners on the corners with one out in the fifth against Good gave the Commodores a crucial opportunity to blow the game open with second baseman Jayden Davis at the plate.
Davis hit a one-hop missile to short, but Will Tippett corralled it, quickly flipped to second base and started a 6-4-3 double play to get the Gamecocks in the dugout.
It felt like a potential game-saver at the time, and it was.
"That was a huge play," Kingston said. "They have a chance to extend the lead right there and Tippett made an incredible play, a range play. It's great to have athletes on defense, and especially at the shortstop position having range can change the game."
Immediately following the momentum-shifting defensive play, Tyler Causey and Blake Jackson smoked back-to-back doubles leading off the fifth. The latter knock plated a run which cut the deficit in half, and three batters later former Commodore Parker Noland picked up a game-tying RBI against his old team with a groundout to second base.
It left Vanderbilt one out away from escaping the inning still tied. Cole Messina had other plans, hitting a skyscraping home run to left field which gave the Gamecocks a 5-3 lead. After over a month of crying out for key hits in big spots, South Carolina’s two preseason All-Americans both delivered homers on the first home date of conference play.
Petry tacked his second home run an inning later, Causey hit one of his own on a line drive into the Vanderbilt bullpen and relievers Parker Marlatt and Garrett Gainey took the baton from Good to get the final 10 outs while allowing just one combined hit.
South Carolina will go for the sweep at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
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