South Carolina gets walk-off home run in upset over No. 3 NC State
South Carolina baseball started and finished things Tuesday night with a bang.
After a seven-run first inning against No. 3 NC State, the Gamecocks got a walk-off home run from senior third baseman Jacob Olson to pull off the 10-8 upset at BB&T Ballpark, their first win in four tries at the venue.
It was Olson’s second home run of the day and second walk-off home run of the season — on a 1-1 count with sophomore catcher Luke Berryhill on first, his blast over the left field wall carried 394 feet.
“The pitch before, I swung at one way out of the zone, just kinda had to regroup, breath a little bit. And it was in a good spot, I was looking to drive the ball and thankfully it went over the wall,” Olson said. “That was a good one.”
It almost never happened — in the previous at-bat, Berryhill nearly grounded into an inning-ending double play but legged it out to first for a fielder’s choice.
“That’s the game. That’s huge for him, huge hustle, and that’s what he always does,” Olson said of Berryhill.
Olson’s blast bookended a game in which South Carolina (18-11, 2-7 SEC) posted seven runs in the first inning, pushing the Gamecocks to an early lead after N.C. State tallied four runs in the top of the frame thanks a pair of two-run home runs off freshman starter Dylan Harley.
USC stormed back from the early deficit as senior center fielder TJ Hopkins plated sophomore second baseman Noah Campbell on a fielder’s choice, sophomore catcher Luke Berryhill slugged a towering home run to left field and Olson tied the game with a solo homer to left.
Freshman left fielder Brady Allen then put the Gamecocks up 7-4 with the third home run in the inning after a pair of singles from redshirt freshman DH Ian Jenkins and senior first baseman Chris Cullen.
“That game had a lot of craziness. It had two teams that wanted to win. N.C. State is as good a team as we’ve seen this year without question. ... It took everything we had. It took a lot of heart, a lot of guts tonight, some big hits, some big home runs,” coach Mark Kingston said.
N.C. State slowly chipped away after that, getting a run in the second off a leadoff walk and two singles and another in fifth off a single, wild pitch and sacrifice fly. In between, South Carolina grabbed a run as freshman third baseman Jonah Beamon, making his first career start, beat out an infield single, stole second and third base and scored on a fielder’s choice.
Sophomores TJ Shook and John Gilreath combined to throw six mostly clean innings for the Gamecocks, but Gilreath finally hit a wall in the eighth, walking the first two batters before making way for freshman Wesley Sweatt, who gave up a single to center field that, combined with a pair of errors by Hopkins, scored two runs and tied the game, 8-8, setting up Olson’s heroics.
“They kept us in the game,” Kingston said of his bullpen. “We still gave up eight runs on 12 hits. Our defense was a little sloppy there in spots. But at the end of the day, we won the game against a team that’s 27-2, so that’ll be our focus tonight.
Next: The Gamecocks travel to Tuscaloosa to play Alabama, hoping to snap a three-series losing streak in SEC play. First pitch on Thursday is scheduled for 7 p.m.
This story was originally published April 2, 2019 at 10:48 PM.
