Blake Jackson's two-homer night gives South Carolina improbable walk-off win
Before Blake Jackson walked up to the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning, Monte Lee came up to him. Ironically enough, after hitting a solo homer one inning earlier, the two were debating whether or not to bunt with a runner on first base.
“I’m not bad at bunting lefties,” Jackson said. “Whatever we can do to pass the bats, that’s what were thinking. But he just told me to swing away and trust myself.”
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Not sure of what to do, Jackson thought bunting the runner over might be the better choice. But Lee insisted that he instead swing away since he had been seeing the ball well lately.
And fortunately, Jackson trusted his coach in the moment. On a 1-0 pitch, the junior outfielder lifted a lofty fly ball into left field. But with the wind blowing out, the ball kept carrying and eventually left the ballpark.
Just when it looked like the game was all but over, South Carolina managed to do the improbable not once but twice. Jackson’s two-run walk-off homer gave the Gamecocks a 6-5 win over Kentucky on Friday night.
“I think Tommy (Moody) helped blow that ball out of the ballpark today. I can’t think of another logical explanation other than that,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “Off the bat, I thought it was going to push the left fielder back a little bit. I certainly did not think it was going to end up as a home run. The ball hasn’t been carrying at night here this year, hardly at all. But tonight late, it certainly carried for us.”
For eight innings, South Carolina (28-13, 10-9 SEC) couldn’t seem to buy a hit. Strikeouts were piling up and runs were scarce. Eventually, things came to ahead as the ninth began. Ty Good, who had been pitching a gem out of the bullpen, put two runners on. Matt Williams came out to make a pitching change and call on Garrett Gainey to try and work out of the jam.
“At 80 pitches, you could tell he was running out of gas,” Kingston said of Good, who pitched five strong innings. “I looked at Matt, he had dominated for a long time, but Matt just looked at me and said he’s out of gas. And so we had to go to the next guy. But he was great tonight.”
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But the move wouldn’t work out in their favor as the Wildcats plated three runs to take a 4-1 lead. In the moment, it seemed like South Carolina was going to be handed another excruciating loss.
Despite being in a bit of a hole, Kingston said he didn’t sense any sort of give up amongst the players. But it would be tough to imagine making any comeback with the way the offense had been swinging the bats.
To lead off the frame, Jackson hit a solo shot into the visitors bullpen to cut the deficit to two runs. Knowing the game was far from over, Kingston opted to bring in some pinch hitters off the bench to see what they could do.
After Talmadge LeCroy struck out swinging, Dalton Reeves and Gavin Casas both came in to replace Dylan Brewer and Lee Ellis, respectively. And by some luck, they both launched solo homers to tie the game at four.
“Look, it’s all about them getting an opportunity and taking advantage of it,” Kingston said. “Obviously, Gavin has had some good moments and some not so good moments this year. Tonight was a great moment. You like to see it cause he works hard. He works really hard, all these guys work really hard. It just felt like the right move at the right time. We were running out of outs. And so we had what we thought were probably better chances to extend the game with those hitters coming in. And we gave them an opportunity. As a coach, that’s all you can do, provide the opportunity and then hope they make the most of it. And tonight, those guys clearly made the most of it.”
Just when it seemed like things were going to go South Carolina’s way, Kentucky wasted no time responding. Once again, the Wildcats plated another run in the 10th to take a 5-4 lead. And this time, they were hoping to hold onto the lead and pick up a big road win.
But as it turned out, it was just one of those nights for the Gamecocks.
“Tonight, we won a game and it’s hard to figure out how we did it other than sometimes that’s just baseball. And the kids just didn’t give up,” Kingston said. “Five runs in the last two innings after really struggling for the first eight. Just really proud of that group. I told them they deserve that win because of how they’ve handled a lot of things. So, real happy for that group and we’ve got to build on it.”
Up next: South Carolina will go for the series win against Kentucky on Saturday. First pitch is at 6 p.m. on SEC Network. Eli Jones (3-1, 3.47 ERA) will get the start on the mound.
