Bats wake up, Gamecocks hang on to top Liberty
South Carolina was finally able to produce the clutch hits it has struggled to come up with all season Wednesday night against Liberty.
The Gamecocks rallied from a five-run deficit to top the Flames 10-7 at Founders Park.
USC (29-19) trailed 6-1 entering the bottom of the fifth inning before scoring six runs to take a 7-6 lead. Carolina maintained its lead the rest of the way to top a Liberty team that has knocked off No. 3 UNC, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 22 St. John’s this season.
“It was a nice win against a really good team, a team that’s beat some really, really good opponents,” Carolina coach Chad Holbrook said. “We were down 6-1 there and we hadn’t displayed ourselves as an offensive juggernaut so things didn’t really look good at that point in time.”
Danny Blair checked into the game for TJ Hopkins in the fourth inning and provided a spark in his first at bat, blasting a two-run homer to right, the first of his career.
Jonah Bride added a two-out RBI single later in the fifth to cut the lead to 6-4 before freshman Riley Hogan blasted a three-run homer to right to put the Gamecocks on top for good.
Blair and Hogan each had four RBIs on the season entering Wednesday before combining for seven against Liberty.
“To have a six-run inning and Danny get us off the bench and going, that was neat to see,” Holbrook said. “Hogan, being a freshman, stepped up and hit a three-run homer… Two really big swings of the bat.”
Blair hit the first pitch he saw out of the park, while Hogan’s homer came on an 0-1 pitch.
“He hung a curveball and it went pretty far,” Hogan said with a smile.
South Carolina added a pair of runs in the sixth inning on a two-run homer by Carlos Cortes and plated a run in the seventh on a Blair groundout.
The Gamecocks hit .318 with runners on base and were 2-for-2 in scoring opportunities with a runner on third and less than two outs.
USC’s pitching staff got off to a rough start with Colby Lee allowing five runs in four innings but settled down nicely the second half of the game.
Graham Lawson allowed an unearned run in one inning of work before giving way to Colie Bowers, who pitched three innings and only allowed one hit and one run.
Bowers walked four but struck out six. He made big pitches when he needed to, getting a strikeout with two in scoring position to end the sixth and inducing a double play with two on and no outs in the seventh.
“I knew I had to get out of the jam I got myself into,” he said. “When I got out of it it was definitely a big boost to my mentality and helped me get through the rest of my outing.”
Bowers allowed a leadoff walk in the ninth inning before giving way to Tyler Johnson. USC’s closer once again struggled, surrendering a single and walking a batter before Reed Scott entered with the bases loaded, one out and a 2-0 count.
Scott walked in a run, a walk which was charged to Johnson, and the Flames had the go-ahead run at the plate. But Scott bounced back to strike out the next two batters to end the game.
“I’d have liked to play the ninth inning a lot cleaner than we did, but we’ve lost some like that so I’m not going to complain too much,” Holbrook said.
Alex Destino walked in all five of his plate appearances, setting a school record. LT Tolbert and Jacob Olson each had two hits.
South Carolina returns to action on Friday, facing Missouri on the road.
This story was originally published May 10, 2017 at 11:17 PM with the headline "Bats wake up, Gamecocks hang on to top Liberty."