South Carolina run-rules No. 3 Florida for series-opening victory
One by one, the bottom of South Carolina’s order strolled to the plate in the sixth inning on Thursday night. Five times they dug in. Five times Florida relievers missed the zone. Thrice a Gamecocks runner came around to score. All with two outs.
Five batters. Five walks. Three runs.
The display didn’t feel on-brand for a squad that clubbed a nation’s best 88 homers heading into the week. But forget optics and style points. Thursday’s reality — a run-rule shortened, seven-inning contest — was a scoreboard that read No. 6 South Carolina 13, No. 3 Florida 3.
“I think once we started winning,” ace Will Sanders said, smirking, “they turned up the speakers.”
South Carolina (32-6, 11-4 SEC) had reason to limp into this weekend’s series with Florida (31-8, 11-5 SEC). It’s entering the third consecutive week of Southeastern Conference play in which it faces a top-five opponent. There have been injuries to third baseman Talmadge LeCroy and No. 2 starter Noah Hall. A series loss at Vanderbilt a week ago, too, left a bit of sting.
But this resurgent Gamecocks squad found something on Thursday night, albeit in a less dynamic fashion than this long-ball happy team has had in recent months, to sink the visiting Gators and steal Game 1 of a blockbuster three-game set.
Start with Sanders. One needn’t squint to see what’s there in the talented righty. He’s 6-foot-6 and can touch 97 miles per hour with his fastball. His delivery whips with an ease a fury that feels almost Randy Johnson-esque from the opposite side. His curveball is devilish.
When this version of Sanders clicks, he looks like a Ferrari mowing through a meadow of daisies. Yet in between each rev of the engine there’s a subtle thought he might morph into a variation of his Toyota Tercel-self that’s flashed one too many times in 2023.
Days like Thursday feel like an exhilarating encapsulation of the Sanders experience. There’s certainly the dominance. He struck out eight through the first five innings. He fanned Florida super-slugger Jac Caglianone his first three trips to the dish. Sanders’ curveball — which head coach Mark Kingston said was the best it’s been all year — dropped from the hitters’ letters to their ankles with dastardly precision.
Then, of course, there’s the erraticism that has come in waves. Sanders walked three batters, hit another and notched a wild pitch all in his first three innings of work. That’s not to mention the handful of pitches he stuffed into the dirt, whether by design or not is in the eye of the beholder.
But this reinvented, perhaps calmer version of Sanders prevailed on Thursday. He allowed just three hits in six innings, becoming the first South Carolina starter to go that long since Hall on March 25 against Missouri. His 10 strikeouts were a season high.
This was the version of Sanders we were promised in the preseason. This was the version of Sanders that makes the Gamecocks national title contenders.
“Tonight was kind of a big night for me personally,” a noticeably moved Sanders said postgame. “Just because it’s taken a while to to get everything into action. ....Sometimes I get emotional, because I love this team. I love this game, and I want to win for everybody.”
Behind Sanders’ effort, South Carolina’s newly found confidence at the plate drubbed Florida’s wayward bullpen.
The Gamecocks notched three runs by way of the five consecutive walks gifted by Gators relievers Philip Abner and Nick Ficarrotta. That included full-count discipline from eight- and nine-hole hitters Evan Stone and Will Tippett, who are hitting a meager .211 and .143 this spring.
Freshman phenom Ethan Petry followed the bottom of the order with the precision he’s shown throughout his first college campaign, slapping a two-out, two-run single into centerfield to push the Gamecocks lead to five to end the sixth inning.
It snowballed from there.
Second-year shortstop Michael Braswell slugged his third double of the night to left-center, scoring Gavin Casas from first base. Florida reliever Tyler Nesbitt then wobbled off the mound toward a grounder that he fired into the wall behind first base. Two more Gamecocks runs scored.
Catcher Cole Messina put the finishing touches on South Carolina’s run-rule win when he clobbered a delivery from Nesbitt to the centerfield wall, scoring a pair and pushing the Gamecocks to a 13-3 win.
“Generally we’ll probably get our offense from the top of the lineup,” Kingston said. “And those guys at the bottom (Stone and Tippett) need to play great defense, but when they give you a spark offensively, it makes for a night like tonight.”
Sanders spoke Thursday following his most impressive outing of the year like a man who’s felt the pressure and pain of weeks past. He quipped his ebbs and flows have manifested for eight starts, rather than the two or so weeks one reporter suggested. He conceded he’s long had a distaste for Florida — a product of attending a handful of camps in Gainesville and never landing an offer. He’s channeled that admitted disdain throughout college, and, this weekend specifically.
There’s a good bet this week is the final time Sanders will ever start against Florida barring a meeting in the postseason. He’s almost assuredly going to be taken in the first two rounds of the MLB draft this summer.
If he looks like the pitcher he was on Thursday, that stock may soar.
“They beat us last year, (Florida) ended our season,” Sanders said. “A lot of that’s what I thought about today. I went to lunch with my parents and we were just talking (about how) they ended our season. That’s made us work hard for three months over the summer. It pushed us. And it feels really good to beat them by a lot tonight.”
Founders Park was sold out on Thursday night. A reported 8,242 fans packed every inch of the ballpark. The hometown squad, now 22-1 in Columbia, delivered.
Sanders is finding his form. The offense, for all its power, is capable of being opportunistic. That kind of combination is one that makes South Carolina feel like a very real contender.
Two games remain against the No. 3 Gators, but wins like Thursday feel like just the start.
This story was originally published April 20, 2023 at 9:56 PM with the headline "South Carolina run-rules No. 3 Florida for series-opening victory."
