South Carolina scores 16 unanswered runs to complete sweep of Longwood
It was nowhere near a perfect day for South Carolina. But in a game that went back and forth, the Gamecocks got the last laugh in a big way.
No. 21 South Carolina (13-3) picked up a run-rule, 22-6 win over Longwood to complete the series sweep on Sunday.
“I thought it was a good way for us to finish the week. Went 5-0 on the week, put an exclamation point on it today,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “For the most part, the offense was the main story today. But only one earned run today for our pitchers. Another really good day from them. Just got to continue to build on it.”
[GamecockCentral for $1: In-depth coverage and a great community]
The Gamecocks broke through in the first inning as Tyler Causey hit a two-run double with two outs.
On the mound, Ty Good made his first start of the year after pitching out of relief. He worked in and out of jams through two frames and continued to look good.
But with two outs in the third, Good served up a three-run homer to Longwood’s Noah Campanelli, erasing the Gamecocks’ lead. It was now 4-2 Lancers.
“I thought he was good,” Kingston said about Good’s outing. “I wish we would’ve made a few more plays behind him that led to some of the runs. He only gave up one earned run in three innings. So that’s a very solid outing.”
In the home half of the inning, South Carolina got some much-needed luck on its side. To lead things off, Cole Messina hit what looked to be a long fly out to right centerfield. But with the sun in the outfielder’s eyes, the ball dropped and bounced into the home bullpen for a ground-rule double.
[On3 App: Get South Carolina push notifications from GamecockCentral]
From there, the chaos had only just begun. Two batters later, Kennedy Jones hit a routine grounder to third, but a bad throw allowed him to reach and for Messina to score from second.
After a Parker Noland opposite field single, the Gamecocks pulled off a double steal, with Jones scoring from third. It was a close play but the idea worked to perfection as the game was all tied up at four.
Still in the third, South Carolina would grab the lead thanks to an RBI single from Will Tippett. To cap things off, Tippett scored from third on a wild pitch, bringing an end to an eventful inning.
Good’s day came to an end after three innings of work, paving the way for Connor McCreery to come into the game. After putting two runners on, he looked on his way to getting out of the jam unscathed. But a throwing error by Noland allowed one run to score.
After not being able to scoop the low throw, Gavin Casas threw home to try and gun down the trailing runner. But there was one problem: no one was covering home plate. So the second run scored, tying the game at six.
[Newsletters: Get breaking news and analysis from GamecockCentral]
But in the next frame, Causey gave the Gamecocks the lead right back with a two-run shot over the right field fence.
“We’ve put in a lot of work this week, had a lot of early hitting multiple times throughout the week,” Causey said. “Just the hard work we put in with the coaching staff, couple adjustments with coach (Monte) Lee and coach (Joey) Holcomb. And obviously, those paid off pretty well.”
In the fifth, South Carolina drew three walks to load the bases with two outs. Causey picked up his fifth RBI of the day with a walk, then Jones and Noland were both given free passes to bring home two more runs.
With a lot more cushion to work with, Tyler Pitzer came in and pitched very well. He threw two perfect innings, only giving up one hit. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter.
“I felt a lot more comfortable,” Pitzer said. “Coming into my first outing against Miami (Ohio), there was a little bit of nerves. But just getting more experience and getting out there more, I’ve come to feel that I’m more comfortable.”
In the sixth, the Gamecocks continued to score in big numbers as Ethan Petry hit an RBI double with the hit and run on. After Petry scored on a wild pitch, Jones hit a three-run homer to make it a 10-run lead. Casas made up for his earlier throwing error with a two-run shot in the home bullpen to make it an 18-6 game.
Things only continued to get worse for Longwood in the frame as South Carolina scored four more runs. In total, the Gamecocks drew 18 walks, which helped plate most of their runs in the game.
“It can create confidence, and some guys made adjustments — that stuff doesn’t happen by accident,” Kingston said. “Make no mistake, Longwood came in 7-5 on the year and had beaten some good teams. So that’s a pretty good baseball team that we played. I just think that we played well. We were better this week than we had been.”
After the 11-run inning, Tyler Dean came on in the seventh to close things out. Outside of a two-out single, he shut down the Lancers to seal the deal.
RELATED: South Carolina-Longwood Game 3 Box Score
Up next: South Carolina will begin a five-game road trip, starting in North Augusta on Tuesday. The Gamecocks will face Georgia State at SRP Park, a minor league stadium that’s home to the Augusta GreenJackets. First pitch is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network Plus.
