South Carolina takes series win over Liberty with walk-off wild pitch
Nothing was easy for South Carolina baseball in its first series of the season against Liberty. All three games on the weekend went back and forth and deep into the ballgame before being decided.
Sunday’s game capped that with a wild finish, as the Gamecocks gutted out a series win at Founders Park on a blustery day, winning 3-2 with a walk-off wild pitch.
After a slow first eight innings at the plate with only four hits, USC (2-1) got the winning run in the ninth without recording an out.
Junior catcher Luke Berryhill led off with a walk and then advanced to third on a line drive single to center field by senior third baseman Jacob Olson. Coach Mark Kingston called Berryhill’s aggressive base-running the “play of the game.”
“That what coach is preaching to the guys that can run — if the outfielder is deep enough to take the second base, take it,” Berryhill said.
With freshman designated hitter Quinntin Perez at the plate, the very first pitch scooted past the Flames catcher, allowing Berryhill to score with ease.
“I was anticipating it,” Berryhill said. “Whether I actually thought it was going to happen or not, but since I was anticipating it, I was able to get a good jump on it.”
“That catcher for them was tremendous. He blocked everything all weekend, and just finally at the end I guess the dam broke a little bit,” Kingston said.
The play was briefly reviewed to determine if the ball hit Perez but was upheld, ensuring the Gamecocks did not waste its best pitching performance of the weekend, from junior college transfer and starter Reid Morgan, making his Gamecocks debut after starting just one other game across a year of JUCO and a year at Oklahoma State.
Morgan went six innings, five of them scoreless. His only trouble came in the top of the first inning with two outs, in part because of his defense. After a sharp line drive single glanced off the glove of Olson, Liberty scored when freshman left fielder Brady Allen over-ran a ball that hit the wall, leading to a double. The next Flames batter produced a soft grounder to third, but Olson threw the ball over first baseman Josiah Sightler’s head, allowing another run to score.
“His velocity was up on his fastball and his change-up,” Kingston said of Morgan’s first inning. “I think he was pretty geeked up in that first inning. He’s better at 88, 89 (miles per hour) with sink than 90, 91 and it’s straight. ... After that, he settled in, his velocity was right where it needed to be and he gave us a real efficient outing.”
The only other real jam Morgan encountered came in the sixth inning, when he allowed back-to-back one-out singles, causing the first activity in the Gamecock bullpen. But he worked his way out of it with a strikeout and a soft ground ball and finished the day with one earned run, six hits, three strikeouts and no walks.
“(He) went six innings on 77 pitches. That hasn’t been done I think around here in a while,” Kingston said. “That was exactly what we wanted out of him.”
After getting no-hit through the first three innings, the Gamecocks’ batters cracked the scoreboard in the top of the fourth when senior center fielder TJ Hopkins blasted a long shot that stayed just fair down the left field line for a solo home run.
The Gamecocks then tied the game in the bottom of the fifth after junior right fielder Andrew Eyster singled, junior shortstop Nick Neville doubled into the left-center field gap and sophomore second baseman Noah Campbell grounded out to second, plating Eyster.
After Morgan departed the game, USC’s bullpen once again put together a shutdown performance after coming up big in Saturday’s 13-7 win. Liberty managed to hit several balls hard, but all at defenders, and three relievers combined for three no-hit innings.
Leading the way, freshman Brett Kerry threw two perfect frames with three strikeouts for the win after striking out two in a perfect inning the day before.
“The last two days have been huge. Of course, coming in as a freshman to an SEC program and getting to pitch two times on opening weekend and even getting a win is unbelievable,” Kerry said.
The Gamecock offense, meanwhile scuffled after the fifth inning, producing just one hit from the sixth to the eighth, setting up the ninth-inning heroics. Regardless, coming away with the series win was huge, Kingston and his players said.
“A tough, heart-breaking loss on Friday, and then we bounce back Saturday and bounce back today with two big wins,” Morgan said.
NEXT
South Carolina hosts Winthrop on Tuesday in a midweek contest at Founders Park. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m., and the game will be streamed on SEC Network Plus. The forecast calls for rain in the evening.
This story was originally published February 17, 2019 at 4:14 PM.
