The mantra often associated with South Carolina baseball is Win Anyway; no matter what the circumstance or situation, find some way—any way—to win the game.
It was the prevailing mood among some of the Gamecocks’ better teams of the last decade, and there were shades of it trickling through Founders Park Friday night.
Down to their final strike, the Gamecocks found a way to win, taking down Florida 9-8 in 14 innings in what turned into an instant classic at Founders Park, pushing their win streak to now three games.
“If you’re in the game long enough you get some games that you just don’t know how to describe and you’ll remember for the rest of your life,” Mark Kingston said. “That was surely one of them.”
First, there was the heartbreak.
Julian Bosnic gave up a tie-breaking home run with two outs in the top of the 14th inning and the Gamecocks watched two of their better hitters—Wes Clarke and David Mendham—record two outs in five pitches and Andrew Eyster fall into a quick two-strike hole.
Then relief.
Eyster cranked a solo home run into the Gamecocks’ bullpen in right-centerfield to tie the game and guarantee South Carolina wouldn’t lose in that inning.
“Disbelief. It was disbelief when their guys’ homer left the building in the top of the inning,” Kingston said. “When Eyster fell behind with two strikes and two outs, it’s just disbelief when I saw him ball traveling into our bullpen.”
Two batters later came jubilation.
After a Jeff Heinrich single Colin Burgess roped a double over the head of Florida’s right fielder that bounced off the centerfielder’s glove and sent Heinrich sliding into home and giving the Gamecocks the win.
“It felt really good. I was trying to stay relaxed and calm,” Burgess said. “I didn’t know I could hit a ball to right field that far.”
The Gamecock offense riding a hot streak entering the game, chased top 30 prospect Tommy Mace after four innings, tagging the righty for the most runs and hits he’d given up in an outing this season.
They’d finish with 20 hits, a season-high, and out-hit the Gators by nine.
“It’s showing we’re really moving in a good direction,” Kingston said. “This is a good baseball team. We’ve played a heck of a schedule but it prepared us for tonight because we had the will to keep going and never give up. That’s built through challenging your team.”
But even the regulation part of the game had enough drama for an entire weekend with plenty of lead changes and momentum swings.
After the Gamecocks (14-6, 2-2 SEC) jumped out to an early lead, Florida stormed back to take a lead off Thomas Farr, who ultimately gave up the most runs (5) and had his shortest outing of this season.
The Gamecocks, seeing their deficit balloon to three in the seventh, stormed back to plate three over the next two innings to tie the game and force extras before the bullpen threw up zeroes until the Florida homer in the 14th.
Andy Peters was tremendous in four shutout innings, allowing one hit and three walks and striking out five while Bosnic, outside of one pitch, threw great with five strikeouts in two innings.
“Tremendous. I mean the amount of arms and fastballs over 95 tonight, that had to be close to a record between both teams,” Kingston said. “That’s what I’m proud of with this team. We can go blow for blow with the bets in the country. That was a big test for us tonight and we passed it.”
The Gamecocks now have a game advantage and need one win over the next two to take the series against the No. 5 Gators, and hope a win like this can propel them to that.
“That was 14 innings of gut check, and our team responded every time,” Kingston said. “It’s just a combination of so many things. It’s an intense rivalry. It’s a big game. We came back to win in the 14th when it looked like we’d lose. For all those reasons, I’m probably a little more emotional than I normally am but this win was big for us.”
