South Carolina blows late lead, walks-off Alabama in ninth for Game 1 win
South Carolina catcher Colin Burgess rounded first base Thursday night and flung his helmet toward the heavens.
Never mind that his tag on Alabama leadoff man Jim Jarvis’ game-tying slide into home plate was a fraction late. Don’t worry that the Gamecocks are still on the outside-looking-in of the NCAA Tournament picture.
Seventeen minutes after the Crimson Tide (25-18, 9-10 SEC) erased a two-run ninth inning deficit with two strikes and two outs, it was Burgess that received the final applause when his nubbed RBI single to shallow left center sank into the outfield grass and gifted the Gamecocks (20-20, 7-12 SEC) a 6-5 desperation Game 1 win.
“I barely even hit it,” Burgess said through a wry smile. “I kind of just dropped it in there.”
The Gamecocks have had their struggles opening series’ in 2022. They’d dropped the first game in five of their six three-game Southeastern Conference sets entering the weekend. The lone win came at Missouri, a series South Carolina ultimately lost.
Thursday, though, the Gamecocks looked the part of a gritty team capable of a late-season run as they angle toward a third NCAA Tournament bid in the past four chances.
“Obviously not real pretty, but at this point we don’t care about pretty,” head coach Mark Kingston said with a subtle hint of tongue-in-cheek. “We just care about trying to win the game and we did that.”
Sweet-swinging freshman Michael Braswell had steadily watched his scorching start to the 2022 campaign slow in recent weeks. After hitting .429 through South Carolina’s first seven games, Braswell steadily dipped to .278 heading into the evening.
The Georgia native slugged his way out of that recent slump when he clubbed a solo home run into the visiting bullpen in left center field just one inning after senior Andrew Eyster hit a solo shot of his own.
Braswell’s single in the fifth inning also gave him his first multi-hit game since a March 15 win over Gardner Webb and pushed his average up to .291 by night’s end.
Josiah Sightler followed suit when he clobbered a 1-2 delivery from Alabama starter Garrett McMillan 440-feet, well over the wrought iron fence beyond the right field barrier separating the stands from the playing surface.
“I don’t know what the official tally on that was,” Kingston said. “But that was a majestic home run.”
Fans leapt from their seats in a chorus of applause as the clock crept past 9:30 p.m. on Thursday night and the Gamecocks nursed their late lead.
Crimson Tide first baseman Drew Williamson sent those same cheering onlookers in search of hiding when he smoked a game-tying two-RBI single through the middle of the infield, plating Michael Hodo and Jarvis — whose safe slide was confirmed by video review.
“Yeah I thought I did,” Burgess chided when asked if he thought he made the play in time. “I guess I was wrong.”
Thursday, third-year righty Brett Thomas drew his second consecutive Game 1 start in the latest effort to combat the lengthy list of banged up bullpen arms under Kingston’s watch.
The former top-100 recruit, per Perfect Game, responded with the lengthiest outing of his South Carolina career, turning in a personal-best four innings pitched and allowing just one earned run on four hits.
“We were asking our pitchers to throw strikes, minimize the walks as much as possible, let our very good defensive play,” Kingston explained. “And when we do that, we tend to we tend to give up much fewer runs. For us, that’s the key — and (Thomas) was very good tonight.”
That South Carolina clawed its way out of Thursday’s drama-filled affair has become a norm for this scrappy bunch in Columbia of late.
USC has already stolen series wins from Vanderbilt, Texas and Ole Miss after dropping the first game of those sets. Kingston’s crew has also notched a trio of walk-off wins — including two in the past 14 days — this spring.
Fourteen games remain for South Carolina to put itself in the NCAA Tournament mix. D1Baseball projected the Gamecocks to miss the 64-team field entirely as of Wednesday.
The Game 1 win over Alabama won’t cure all ills, but it’s a start.
In a season that’s seen South Carolina slog through losses to Xavier, Presbyterian and the Citadel, there’s just enough light at the end of the regular season tunnel to think this Gamecocks squad may just have a pennant race run in them after all.
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 9:48 PM.
