Gamecocks battle back to tie series against Gators
South Carolina coach Chad Holbrook was anxious to see how his team would respond after a heartbreaking loss to No. 1 Florida on Friday night. The Gamecocks bounced back with a dramatic win of their own.
Right fielder Gene Cone hit a solo home run in the seventh inning to give USC a 2-1 advantage, and the Gamecocks’ bullpen held the late lead as No. 6 USC (34-9, 15-5) defeated top-ranked Florida (37-7, 14-6) 2-1 at Founders Park on Saturday night.
The win is the second for South Carolina over Florida in the past 12 meetings, dating back to 2013.
“Tonight we came out and we had a little guts,” outfielder Dom Thompson-Williams said. “We showed who our team is to the whole country.”
Cone also doubled and extended his hitting streak to 29 games, which ties the Division I record for this season. He reached base in three of his four plate appearances.
“This is huge. This is easily our biggest win and our biggest game of the season,” Cone said.
The victory gives South Carolina a one-game lead over Florida in the SEC standings and is the 15th SEC win for USC with 10 league games remaining.
“Coaches talk about that number a lot in this league, getting to 15. After what happened last year to be at 15 right now, I’m awfully proud of my team,” Carolina coach Chad Holbrook said. “There are teams that play in the College World Series that going 15-15 or 16-14 the league’s so difficult. We beat probably the best team in baseball and won our 15th league game. It’s a great night for our program.”
Braden Webb earned the win for the Gamecocks, shutting down Florida’s offense for the better part of 7 1/3 innings. The only run he allowed came on a solo home run by Buddy Reed. Webb gave up five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.
Webb is now 9-2 on the year and leads the SEC in wins. He was matched up against Florida lefty A.J. Puk, who is expected to be a top 10 pick in the upcoming MLB draft.
“When you have to honor his off-speed pitches he becomes very difficult to hit,” Holbrook said of Webb. “Because he threw his curveball and changeup over for strikes he made Florida honor his off-speed pitches. He wasn’t one-dimensional tonight. That’s why he had so much success.”
The freshman said he knew he had to pitch well to give USC a boost after the Gamecocks blew a late lead in the ninth inning on Friday.
“It was extremely important after last night. The end of that game didn’t turn out how we wanted it to,” Webb said. “I knew we were coming out ready to fight tonight. There were a lot of emotions in there.”
Tyler Johnson pitched the final 1 2/3 innings for South Carolina and got a strikeout with runners on second and third to end the eighth inning and a strikeout with a runner on third to end the game to earn his fourth save of the year.
“We just looked at each other and said it’s a new day,” Johnson said. “The crowd really was huge tonight. The field was shaking out there.”
Thompson-Williams went 1-for-4 with a run, while LT Tolbert went 1-for-3 with an RBI single in the second inning.
THREE POINTS
Star of the game: Cone: South Carolina’s offensive MVP doubled in the bottom of the first inning to extend his hitting streak to 29 games and hit the go-ahead home run in the seventh inning that turned out to be the game winner.
Play of the game: Florida had two runners in scoring position and No. 3 hitter JJ Schwarz at the plate in the eighth inning when Tyler Johnson struck out Schwarz swinging to end the frame.
Stat of the game: 24: The two teams combined for 24 strikeouts.
RECAP: @Gamecockbasebll evens the series with a HUGE 2-1 win over #1 Florida. #Gamecocks #BattleOfTheBesthttps://t.co/IpQ5mrjyQj
— Gamecock Productions (@GamecockVideo) May 1, 2016
OBSERVATIONS
Emotions were running high: There was jawing throughout the game coming from Puk, Schwarz, Thompson-Williams and others.
Cone is right: This is easily the biggest win of the year for South Carolina. It would have been easy for the Gamecocks to struggle to bounce back after the way Friday’s game ended.
NEXT
What: South Carolina vs. Florida
When: 1:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Founders Park
Probable pitchers: USC – Adam Hill (Fr. RHP); UF – Alex Faedo (So. RHP)
Watch: SEC Network Plus (digital)
Radio: 107.5 FM
This story was originally published April 30, 2016 at 10:10 PM.