Cole Messina's two-homer day lifts South Carolina to series win
It turned out all Cole Messina needed was a haircut.
Coming into this weekend, he had been struggling at the plate, like some of his other teammates. In these situations, players normally try to tweak their swing or do something different to get out of their funk.
“During the rain delay on Wednesday, (Ethan) Petry was talking to me, he was like, ‘When you gonna buzz cut again? I like the buzz cut.’ I was like, ‘Alright, let’s do it.’ I did it and then the sides are a story for another time,” Messina explained.
For South Carolina’s cleanup hitter, he started sporting a buzz cut compared to his usual mullet. Since then, he’s gotten nothing but good results. Messina homered twice on Saturday en route to a 10-2 win for No. 21 South Carolina (12-3) over Longwood.
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With the game still scoreless in the third, Messina broke the ice with a solo shot into the home bullpen. It was the second day in a row in which he had gone yard.
“We say it in the locker room all the time, you need your dudes to be dudes. And he was the dude today,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “Played like an All-American today. He’s been catching incredibly well. I think his bat’s starting to come around now, he’s starting to find his groove again offensively. When he does that, we’re a completely different offense.”
On the mound, Dylan Eskew got off to a strong start in his first time through the Longwood lineup. He retired the first seven batters he faced before allowing a one-out single in the third. After that runner stole second to move into scoring position, the right-hander got out of trouble with a groundout.
After hitting a one-out double in the fourth, Longwood tied the game with an RBI single off the bat of Logan Janney.
Outside of that, Eskew looked much better on the mound on Saturday. He had been struggling some, especially going through the order for a second time. But he managed to pitch five innings of one-run ball, striking out two with no walks on 57 pitches.
“I thought he pitched well,” Kingston said. “No walks, that’s huge for him. Only gave up four hits and it was on 57 pitches. So again, we just want to continue to see him grow and be able to go even deeper into games…one earned run in five innings, that’s everything you could hope for.”
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Meanwhile, the Gamecock offense broke the tie as Jones drove in Messina from first with an RBI double into the gap in the fifth.
“With guys like Kennedy, Petry, you’re in scoring position wherever you are on base,” Messina said. “He put a good swing on it. I realized it was in the gap, so I just tried to turn them on. I mean, there’s no jets, but you can say I turned on the jets and I just kept going until Monte (Lee) let me go.”
Two batters later, Kingston opted to pinch hit for Ryan Bakes with Tyler Causey and it worked out in his favor. With the shift on, Causey singled into right field, scoring another run to make it 3-1.
“Causey has been really good against right-handed pitchers. We wanted to give Bakes a shot against the lefty today,” Kingston said. “When (Longwood) brought in the righty, it was time to go to Causey, and that was part of the plan.”
In the sixth, the game turned over to bullpen with Roman Kimball, normally the Sunday starter, coming into pitch. And almost right away, his command wasn’t where it needed to be.
Kimball hit the first batter he faced and then walked another before Longwood bunted to move both runners into scoring position. The right-hander would continue to struggle, though, walking another batter and hitting the next one after to force home a run.
After just 19 pitches, pitching coach Matt Williams came out to the mound, an abrupt end to Kimball’s outing.
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South Carolina called on Chris Veach to come in and try to get out of the jam. It wouldn’t be easy as Longwood had the bases loaded with just one out. But in Houdini-type fashion, Veach struck out two straight batters to end the threat.
“I think for him, he’s a stopper, which means he can stop a big rally from coming at any point in the ballgame,” Kingston said about Veach’s role. “Today, it was in the middle of the game. It was bases loaded, it was a close game. They had pulled within one run and he came in and got two big strikeouts with the bases loaded. So he’s more of a stopper for us than he is a closer.”
Right after that, Messina hit a two-out, two-run homer into the home bullpen to get that run back plus one more and make it a 5-2 lead in the sixth.
Back on the mound, Veach continued to shove in relief. He’d end up throwing 2.2 innings without giving up a hit. He struck out seven and walked one on 37 pitches.
“Jogging in from the bullpen to the mound, I’d say the heart rate was going up — bases loaded,” Veach said. “It’s more of just keeping it under control. If I can feel certain endpoints on pitches, that’s when I feel in a rhythm.”
RELATED: South Carolina-Longwood Game 2 Box Score
In the eighth, Parker Noland got a much-needed big hit when he roped a two-run double into the left centerfield gap to give the Gamecocks an even bigger cushion.
But that wasn’t all she wrote. Later in the frame, Gavin Casas came through with an RBI single with two outs to extend the lead even further.
After adding two more runs, the Gamecocks turned to Garrett Gainey to slam the door in the ninth. Outside of a one-out walk, Gainey did just that, striking out the final two batters to seal the deal.
Up next: South Carolina will go for the series sweep on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is at 1:30 p.m. on SEC Network Plus. The Gamecocks haven’t named a starting pitcher for the contest as of right now.
