Sometimes it takes a little luck and a few breaks in baseball, and South Carolina got both in Wednesday’s 7-6 win over North Florida.
Down a run in the seventh with two outs and Connor Cino pinch-hitting down two strikes, the freshman swung through a pitch but—thanks to catcher’s interference—was awarded first base.
Three pitches later, the Gamecocks had the lead thanks to a two-run George Callil single.
"Cino was battling and for whatever reason his bat hit that guy’s glove and then George got the huge hit after that. It’s a crazy game," Mark Kingston said. "You just never know when the turning point is going to be and that was obviously a big turning point.”
The big seventh inning halted the Gamecocks’ three-game losing streak and helps give them some offensive momentum heading into a big weekend series against Mississippi State.
“I think the first couple innings we hit the ball pretty well. We weren’t hitting fly balls like we did in the past," Callil said. "We hit some good line drives and some of those resulted in line drives with Wim and Wes. We’re going to stick with that, which gives us the best chance to get runners on and get the job done.
It wasn’t perfect but South Carolina scored seven runs on nine hits Wednesday afternoon, hitting .353 with runners on base and 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They’d walk five times to 12 strikeouts.
“I thought it was solid. Obviously still want to be better, but we hit a lot of balls on the screws today. We had a couple homers but I was more pleased with the number of line drives we hit," Kingston said. "We did take good at-bats but it’s still not quite we want to be. I would like to be able to break that game open. But it’s a day-to-day process. We’ll keep getting better.”
After getting the lead in the seventh, a pair of lefties slammed the door for South Carolina (27-15, 11-10 SEC) in Magdiel Cotto and Julian Bosnic, who combined to toss three shutout innings to end the game.
Cotto (1-0, 3.38 ERA) picks up his first-career win with two perfect innings and two strikeouts, sitting at 94 miles per hour on his fastball.
"We don’t win the game if Cotto doesn’t do that. His stuff was really good; he showed great poise and great mound presence,” Kingston said. “I thought he looked like what we want him to be, and that was huge. It was a big moment for him and a big moment for us, and hopefully something we can build on.”
Bosnic worked a clean ninth for his second save of the season, aided in part by an Andrew Eyster grab in right where he crashed into the wall, robbing the hitter of extra bases.
South Carolina fell behind in the first inning after a shaky start by freshman Jack Mahoney, the Gamecocks responded nicely, scoring the next five runs of the game thanks to home runs from Braylen Wimmer, his eighth of the year, and two-run shot from Wes Clarke (17).
Colin Burgess tacked on two more with a two-run single in the second, but a strikeout looking with two runners on in the inning kept things from getting out of hand.
Pitching would struggle some early with Mahoney, dealing with some forearm tightness, not getting out of the first and giving up two runs and recording two outs while dealing with John Gilreath and Daniel Lloyd combined to give up four runs in the fourth, including a then go-ahead, two-run single for North Florida with two outs and two strikes.
Lloyd would respond well, pitching two scoreless to end his outing before giving way to Cotto and Bosnic to end the game.
It was a much-needed win for the Gamecocks, who were coming off being swept for the first time this season and needed something to go right before No. 4 Mississippi State comes to town.
“I thought that was a pretty important win over a scrappy North Florida. That’s a team that’s beaten Florida State, beat Georgia,” Kingston said. “I thought the guys did a nice job of finding ways to win that game. It didn’t look great for a while but we didn’t give in, kept fighting and found a way."
