Breaking down the play that saved the game for South Carolina in a thrilling win over Alabama
The pressure was on. After trailing by five going into the bottom of the ninth, Alabama scored four runs to make it a one-run game. Just like that, South Carolina was in real danger of suffering another deadly loss.
After making a pitching change, Chris Veach came in and walked the first batter he faced. Alabama now had the winning run on first with two outs.
“I had to come in and put up a zero. That was my goal the whole time,” Veach said. “Didn’t matter how it happened. Could’ve been a long fly ball to the fence and caught, just had to get a zero.”
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With the next batter up, Veach got ahead 0-2 in the count. But on the ensuing pitch, Alabama’s Ian Petrutz swung and hit a little dribbler down the third base line. He was going to be safe at first.
Realizing this, Talmadge LeCroy, who came charging in from third to try and make a play, faked a throw to first. He took a few steps and turned around, only to see Alabama’s TJ McCants too far off the third base bag.
“I didn’t see anything. Honestly, I was just kind of like eat the ball, don’t throw it away to calm the madness. But Talmadge did it on his own,” Cole Messina said.
Waiting in the wings was Will Tippett covering the base that had been left unoccupied. LeCroy made a quick throw to Tippett, who quickly applied a tag on McCants for the final out. In one of the more improbable ways to end a game, South Carolina had survived. The Gamecocks held on to pick up a 9-8 win over the Crimson Tide on Saturday.
“If he doesn’t do that arm fake, we don’t know what happens,” Veach said on LeCroy’s decision.
In the moments after the game ended, head coach Mark Kingston couldn’t even find the words to explain what he had just seen.
“We played so hard today. We played so well. That would’ve been really hard to have to stomach if we had let that one slip away,” Kingston said. “But we found a way at the end with a very unique play. We talk to our guys all the time about there’s always somewhere to be if we’re looking for an out. We tried to steal one and that’s what we did there. Proud of those guys for being in the right spot and to have the IQ to try to get an out there. That was obviously very huge.”
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If it weren’t for LeCroy’s quick thinking, the ending might have been much different. His other options were to hold onto the ball, which would’ve loaded the bases with two outs. He could’ve also thrown it to first to try to get the final out. But that would’ve been a big risk considering the batter was more likely than not going to be safe.
Instead, LeCroy’s baseball IQ play saved the day for South Carolina.
“You don’t generally think it will win the game for you. But during the course of a game, you’re always looking for a guy taking too big a turn at first or second or third,” Kingston said. “That’s why we back up bases when a guy hits a single because we might throw behind. On that play, he just had a great IQ play of fake the throw to first because there was no play. Looked behind him and Tip was there like he was supposed to be. And we stole an out and stole a game.”
Had this game ended with Alabama coming out on top, the entire feeling would be much different. It would’ve meant the Gamecocks being swept and heading into a new week with a lot of question marks. But now, the feeling is as strong as ever, despite losing the first two games of the series.
“It changes a lot of things. You’re now 5-4, you’re over .500. It’s a good overall record, the RPI continues to stay in the top 10,” Kingston said. “So there’s a lot of good things. We’re officially at the midway point already, which is hard to believe in terms of the overall season. It was a game we really needed. Just glad we held on at the end.”
