Walk-off home run from Noah Campbell runs South Carolina win streak to five games
South Carolina baseball’s bullpen finally cracked Saturday.
Sophomore second baseman Noah Campbell was there to pick the pieces though, lifting the Gamecocks to a 6-5 win over Utah Valley with a walk-off home run.
The two-run blast from Campbell, his second long ball in two games, came with two outs and two strikes. It just cleared the right field fence and sent the remaining fans at Founders Park into a frenzy despite the cold, wet conditions.
“I was just trying to put the ball in play, honestly,” Campbell said. “Just give us a chance to score that tying run. But he missed with the fastball and I took advantage of it.”
The home run also erased what had been to that point a disastrous ninth inning. Leading 4-2, Carolina junior closer Sawyer Bridges fell apart after throwing 1 1/3 shutout innings. He surrendered three consecutive leadoff hits and two runs as the Wolverines tied the game.
“He ran out of gas,” coach Mark Kingston said. “It’s on us to monitor that. We got him out of there and he didn’t finish that inning, but we probably needed to do it a little bit quicker.”
Bridges was replaced by sophomore John Gilreath, leaving a runner on second base with one out. Gilreath got a strikeout before surrendering a double and the go-ahead run.
But despite that deflating turn of events, the Gamecocks’ enthusiasm didn’t wane. In the middle of the inning, before their final at-bats, players gathered for an impromptu motivational mosh pit in the dugout.
“Coach (Stuart) Lake was in the middle, shoving people, getting everybody pumped up,” junior catcher Luke Berryhill said.
Freshman left fielder Brady Allen kicked off the rally with a walk, advanced to second on a balk and made it to third on a sacrifice bunt from senior first baseman Chris Cullen. Sophomore pinch hitter Jordan Holladay then struck out, setting up Campbell’s heroics.
“At that point (after Holladay), you still felt like you had one of the best hitters in the country coming up, so you still had a chance,” Kingston said of his feelings when Campbell came to the plate. “At that point, you’re probably hoping for a single to tie the game, especially with two strikes.”
The Gamecocks initially took the lead in the first inning when junior designated hitter Quinntin Perez scored on an RBI single from Berryhill. They doubled that lead when Perez scored again on an RBI triple from senior center fielder TJ Hopkins.
Utah Valley tied things in the fifth inning when South Carolina freshman starter Dylan Harley, who had struck out six and given up one hit to that point, gave up back-to-back doubles and a run. He was credited with another when relief pitcher Cam Tringali threw a wild pitch, allowing the second runner to score.
“He needs to go deeper into the game,” Kingston said of Harley. “Their guy went seven innings, our starter went four. We need better out of our starting pitching.”
Berryhill and Cullen restored the lead with solo home runs in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively. Berryhill’s shot gave him 10 RBIs on the season, tops on the team.
“He’s hitting clean-up and giving us really good at-bats,” Kingston said. “He’s a guy that has earned a lot of respect in the locker room.”
With five consecutive wins under their belts and a potential sweep on the line Sunday, the Gamecocks as a team are feeling confident, they said, especially after grinding out several of those wins in comeback fashion.
“It just shows we can do anything we put our mind to,” Cullen said. “We were determined to come back in that last inning, and we’ve done that before ... so it just really shows what kind of team we have.”
Next: South Carolina and Utah Valley finish off their series on Sunday at 1:30 p.m., with the game streaming on SEC Network Plus.
This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 5:13 PM.
