Mark Kingston and Skylar Meade had a decision to make in the seventh inning.
South Carolina was clinging to a one-run lead and Brett Kerry just gave up back to back hits, putting the go-ahead run on second base.
Kingston and Meade had to decide: take Kerry, who was approaching 100 pitches, out and go with the warmed-up closer or leave Kerry in and live with the results.
They chose the latter and it paid off with Kerry working himself out of the jam en route to the Gamecocks’ series-evening win over Tennessee, 3-2.
“He’s an assassin out there,” Kingston said. “We both looked at each other and said no. This is for him and he’s going to get himself out of this. If he doesn’t, we’ll be able to live with that. We weren’t going to take the ball out of Brett Kerry’s hands at that point… He got out of it. Someway, somehow he got out of it. Because of who he is.”
Kerry (5-1, 1.98 ERA) got out of the inning with two pop ups, his 106th pitch a listless ball to Braylen Wimmer at second base as Kerry walked off the mound to a raucous cheer and a few fist pumps to cap another dominant start.
“The atmosphere was great. Having that almost-packed Founders has given us our edge to play,” Kerry said. “It’s a blast playing in front of this amount of fans.”
The junior, who prefers the telemarketer to an assassin, gave up some runs early—one apiece in the third and fourth—but settled down and didn’t allow a run over the final three innings of his outing, scattering a total of seven hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.
South Carolina’s offense missed a few chances early to give him some run support, putting the leadoff man on in three of the first four innings with nothing to show for it.
Things finally broke through in the fifth with Colin Burgess and Jeff Heinrich singling to open the frame and a sac bunt setting the stage for Brady Allen—hitting .450 with runners in scoring position—to do some damage.
He did, launching a go-ahead, three-run shot 371 feet and nearly eight rows up the bleachers in left field, bringing the already loud crowd of over 5,000 people to its feet for the loudest cheer of the night to that point.
“The feel, I couldn’t believe it went out,” Allen said. “Rounding the bases, seeing all the fans getting up and cheering I couldn’t hear myself think it was so loud.”
Brady Allen knew it as soon as it left his bat. The only question was how quickly the ball would get out.
The happened as he neared first base, his arm outstretched pointing at the Gamecocks’ dugout as a crowd of over 5,000 people roared to life.
Allen’s homer, the 13th of his season, proved to be the difference and gave the Gamecocks (33-19, 16-13 SEC) momentum and a lead they wouldn’t give up the rest of the game.
“We’ve been stressing to our guys stop letting hanging sliders go. We’ve been taking too many hanging sliders. That’s what can be done with hanging sliders. If you don’t pull off you can drive hanging sliders just as much as you can drive fastballs,” Kingston said.
“He was ready to swing the bat. Obviously he did. He hit it the way you’re supposed to hit it because it stayed true.”
Julian Bosnic came in and only needed 20 pitches to pick up his fourth save of the season, giving up just one hit over the final two innings.
Friday’s win sets up a massive rubber match at noon Saturday (SEC Network) with a series win over the Vols giving the Gamecocks one more notch in their hosting resume belt.
"I‘m not on the committee but it would seem like it would be the case,” Kingston said. “Obviously it’s within striking distance now. Now it’s a matter of playing great baseball tonight and letting the chips fall where they may. We put ourselves in a great position and tomorrow should be a lot of fun.”
