Tennessee spoils USC’s chance at .500 SEC record with rally
For an inning-and-a-half here Saturday afternoon, it appeared as if South Carolina was on its way to evening its SEC record. The Gamecocks jumped ahead by two runs, but a scrappy Tennessee team rebounded to win 4-3 in a walkoff victory before 1,723 fans at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Tennessee ace Bret Marks didn’t have his best stuff the first two innings, and South Carolina took advantage. Marks walked D.C. Arendas in the first. Arendas went to second on Kyle Martin’s groundout and scored on Elliott Caldwell’s RBI single up the middle.
Jordan Gore homered off of Marks in the next inning, and South Carolina (26-18, 9-11 SEC) seemed set to cruise.
“It’s a disappointing loss, because we came out with some juice and some great at bats against a real good pitcher,” Gamecocks coach Chad Holbrook said. We had the lead and kind of let them back in the game and we didn’t do enough offensively the rest of the way to win.”
Marks, who gave up three runs on five hits and five walks and struck out eight, went seven innings. He got behind in the count often in the first two innings. “He was too emotional,” Tennessee coach Dave Serrano said. “But he settled down.”
Holdbrook said Marks, “started throwing strikes; he started working ahead a little bit more. I don’t know if we were locked in (offensively) as much in the middle innings as we need to be to try to win a game.
“When you are a little bit short offensively and you can’t put a lot of hits together, you have to play perfect pitching and defense. We played pretty good defense, but we gave them two runs there in the second. In a low-scoring game, when you give two free 90’s on a hit by pitch and they both score, it gets magnified because we can’t overcome that from an offensive standpoint.”
Starter Vince Fiori hit Johnny Youngblood and Benito Santiago in the second, and they scored on an RBI groundout by Nick Senzel and a single by A.J. Simcox, respectively. “Honestly, I got fooled on the pitch,” Simcox said. “I was just lucky enough that it nestled through the four hole. I definitely didn’t hit that ball well, but I just got enough extension through it.”
Fiori was relieved after the second. Clark Schmidt gave up a run in 4 2/3 innings, and Reed Scott allowed one in 1 1/3 innings before Widener came in in for Scott after Simcox singled to open the ninth. Christin Stewart then singled up the middle on a hit-and-run, putting runners on the corners.
The Gamecocks intentionally walked Andrew Lee to load the bases. With nobody out, Widener got ahead of sophomore Jordan Rodgers, but Rodgers poked a pitch on the outer half of the plate through the hole between first and second on a drawn-in infield. Second baseman Arendas made a diving stab in vain as the winning run scored.
Injury update USC second baseman Max Schrock missed Saturday’s game with a left Achilles tendon strain.
This story was originally published April 25, 2015 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Tennessee spoils USC’s chance at .500 SEC record with rally."