South Carolina baseball escapes with road win over in-state opponent Winthrop
The South Carolina baseball team can breathe a sigh of relief.
The Gamecocks (19-18, 6-9 SEC), after a critical series win over nationally ranked Ole Miss this past weekend, escaped Rock Hill with a 5-2 road win over Winthrop on Wednesday night.
They needed a two-run surge in the ninth inning to do it, but it happened — and in return, USC improved to 6-3 in midweek games and avoided a non-conference loss that would’ve been a big blemish on its postseason resume. (The Gamecocks were among the “first four out” of the NCAA tournament in Baseball America’s latest projections for the field of 64 teams.)
“For us, every game is important right now,” USC head coach Mark Kingston told reporters postgame. “A road game from an RPI standpoint — you get a little more credit for winning on the road — and we just don’t have many games to let slip away anymore based on our record, based on the RPI.”
He added: “We’ve been playing pretty well in mid-weeks since North Carolina (a 15-2 win earlier this month). And this was just a game we had to have.”
USC got off to a fast start on Wednesday night.
In the top of the first, USC scored two runs. The first came thanks to leadoff man Brandt Belk, who scored on a Winthrop wild pitch, and the second came after a double by Talmadge LeCroy sent in Andrew Eyster for a 2-0 USC lead.
The Eagles (13-24, 7-5 Big South) didn’t flinch, though. Winthrop put together eight hits in its next three innings and scored twice. One run came in the bottom of the second — CJ Conrad singled to center field to send in Joseph Szvetitz — and the other came in the third, when Joey Tepper got on base and scored on a wild pitch to tie the score at 2.
The score didn’t budge for a while, but the game was still exciting.
Winthrop’s Tepper scooped a vicious ground ball and made a nice throw to first to end the top of the third. And Winthrop third baseman Szvetitz turned a screaming grounder into a 5-4-3 double play to end the top of the sixth.
USC had its fair share of impressive defensive plays, too: In the bottom of the sixth with two outs, the Eagles loaded the bases (aided by two Gamecock walks), just to have relief right-handed pitcher Cam Tringali force Jack Spyke to fly out to center field to escape disaster.
And then in the bottom of the seventh, with a runner on first, a Khyree Miller blast to center field seemed to have the promise to send in a Winthrop run before Gamecock centerfielder Evan Stone made a leaping grab to end the inning.
After the game, Kingston posited that Stone’s catch — considering the play’s timing in a game that the Gamecocks couldn’t afford to lose — “may be the play of the year.”
“I saw a double that he turned into an out,” Kingston said when asked what he saw in Stone’s catch. “I mean, off the bat, it looked like a double all the way. And we had just put him in the game literally that inning. We were discussing, ‘Should we put him in? Is it too early? It’s a close game.’
“We just decided to do it, and thank God we did. That may be the play of the year in terms of how important it was.”
The Gamecocks finally broke through in the eighth and ninth.
In the eighth, with runners on first and second, Belk was sent home after another Lecroy RBI single for a 3-2 lead.
And then in the ninth, USC loaded the bases and a sacrifice fly by Belk sent in Michael Braswell, and then Colin Burgess later scored on a wild pitch for a 5-2 cushion.
The Eagles escaped the rest of the ninth, but they couldn’t level the score.
Gamecock relief pitcher Cade Austin earned the win, pitching two innings. And Matthew Becker earned the save with a three-up, three-down showing in the bottom of the ninth.
“We talked about it and said, ‘You know, we might have to win ugly tonight,’ “ Kingston said. “The defensive plays all game really kept us in it. It may be our best defensive game of the year. And to do that on the road, that was really good to see.”
Next USC baseball game
Who: South Carolina vs. No. 19 Auburn
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Samford Stadium-Hitchcock Field at Plainsman Park (Auburn, Ala.)
Watch: Streaming on SEC Network Plus
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 8:41 PM.
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