South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston saw plenty on the field to like during the Gamecocks' 12-inning, 10-6 scrimmage win over Georgia Tech Sunday afternoon at Founders Park.
"I think the reason you play these is just to see guys in different spots, to see who handles playing a different team, and the added pressure to that, compared to an intersquad game, so we saw a lot," Kingston said. "And you don't overreact either way, good or bad, it's one day, it's one game. It's kind of like a split-squad game in spring training, but what we did see is some guys that do have the ability to play at this level."
While the game was played with a loose interpretation of the rules -- the Gamecocks batted with two designated hitters -- and players subbing in and out of the game, Kingston liked the way his team competed and battled.
South Carolina entered the ninth inning of the game clinging to a 3-2 lead, but allowed three runs in the top of the inning as Georgia Tech staked a 5-3 edge.
But the Gamecocks fired back in the bottom of the inning. Anthony Amicangelo's two-out RBI single on a hit-and-run plated one run before Shane Shifflett scored on a wild pitch to knot it up, 5-5.
The big blast came two batters later when Wes Clarke, the starter today at first base where there's an ongoing battle, smashed a three-run homer to dead center to put the Gamecocks up 8-5 in what would have been a walk-off in a regular game.
"We were working on battling with two strikes," Kingston said. "I thought we did a good job of that. Part of that is approach, part of that is you have guys that can do it. So, the ninth-inning you have the two big at-bats from the two new veteran guys Amicangelo and (Bryant) Bowen, both fought a ball through the hole, we had guys in motion there, and that led to the big homer. If you can put the ball in play you give yourself a chance."
The scrimmage continued for three more innings with Georgia Tech adding a run in the 10th and the Gamecocks tacking on two more with a solo home run from freshman Colin Burgess in the 10th and a sacrifice fly from Noah Campbell in the 11th.
Freshman third baseman Brennan Milone reached base four times, going 2-for-3 with an RBI and two walks. Amicangelo and Bowen also had two hits as the three newcomers were the only Gamecocks with multi-hit games.
South Carolina worked 11 different pitchers with all except Brannon Jordan spending exactly one inning on the mound. Jordan pitched two perfect innings and struck out four.
"What I was most pleased with was our pitchers made a drastic improvement from the first time we pitched against N.C. State to here," Kingston said. "We've emphasized working fast, attacking the strike zone, not wasting pitches and I thought they did a better job of that today."
