USC rallies past Auburn
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Cone
Greiner
Holbrook
AUBURN, Ala. - No. 11 South Carolina came from behind in the top of the ninth to snap its five-game losing streak in their 3-2 game two win in today's doubleheader.
"Sometimes one win is more important than one win," head coach Chad Holbrook said. "This was probably one of those."
For the second game of the day, all of Auburn's runs came from one inning. This time Auburn took the 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth with back-to-back RBI singles.
That 2-0 score remained the same until the seventh inning.
Besides one RBI single by Gene Cone in the top of seventh, Auburn's starting pitcher Keegan Thompson kept the Gamecocks off the scoreboard for eight complete innings.
Auburn missed plenty of opportunities in the bottom of the eighth when they loaded up the bases with no outs, but Cody Mincey earned the win in that eighth inning by escaping that bases loaded jam scoreless.
"When they had the bases loaded with nobody out and a 3-0 count on the hitter, it didn't look so good for us," Holbrook said. "We might look back on this in June and say that might have been the season, I told the team that. The bases are loaded, nobody out with a 3-0 count on their hitter, surely they're going to get one run. We found a way to win the game, that was extremely important."
Thompson's pitch count was too high after his 1-2-3 eighth inning so Jay Wade came in relief to start the ninth. Wade allowed a leadoff single to Grayson Greiner, walked Elliott Caldwell and then Gene Cone delivered with an RBI double to tie it. Trey Cochran-Gill then intentionally walked Tanner English to load the bases for Jordan Gore, who hit the go-ahead RBI single.
"It was good to get that monkey off our back," Greiner said, who went 3-for-4 in game two. "I can't remember the last time this program has lost six games in a row. Thankfully there in the ninth we had an opportunity to get our guys in and we got two guys in. Then Joel (Seddon) came in to slam the door for us."
USC turned to Seddon once again to earn the save and he earned his 10th save of the season with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth inning.
"Even if we lost the game, I was going to tell you guys that I think I have a special team," Holbrook said. "I think we're going to do special things late in the year when we can get everybody together and healthy."
According to Holbrook, the Gamecocks will look to win the road series tomorrow but if for some reason they do not, they will leave Auburn being .500 at worst in the SEC, "with great anticipation that next Friday [against Alabama] we'll be 100 percent healthy and ready to go."
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