South Carolina Baseball: Gamecocks Battle from Big Deficit to Even Series 1-1

The Clemson Tigers took game 1 of the rivalry series on Friday night. The South Carolina baseball team looked to bounce back behind America’s hottest pitcher, Noah Hall. Hall came into the game 2-0 with a 16/1 strikeout to walk ratio and had only allowed 5 hits in over 13 innings.

Saturday’s contest saw that continue as Hall faced just one more than the minimum through the first four innings. Unfortunately, the Gamecocks didn’t get their first hit against Tristan Smith until the bottom of the fourth. Smith, in his first career collegiate start, was masterful for Clemson.

Hall’s defense got him into a jam in the fifth. After a Benjamin Blackwell single, Ethan Petry made an error in right field on a pop-up from Will Taylor that gifted the Tigers a zero-out, runners on second and third situation. As is often the case in baseball, the error was extremely costly as the Tigers ended up plating three runs in the top half of the fifth before Hall could escape the trouble.

Will McGillis almost tied things up with a three-run bomb in the bottom of the fifth, but his 400-foot drive was just foul. He ended up loading the bases after being hit with a pitch, but with two outs, the Gamecocks could not capitalize as Carson Hornung was thrown out at the plate on a wild pitch.

Hall returned to the mound in the sixth, and cooly pitched a scoreless inning, despite a defensive miscue that essentially caused him to have to earn four outs. His offense put runners on first and third in the bottom half, and freshman Ethan Petry had a potential home run brought back into the yard. Fortunately for the Gamecocks, the ball fell to the ground for a double, and a run scored. After a walk, Talmadge LeCroy singled home two runs to tie up the game 3-3.

Things didn’t go well for Matthew Becker in relief as three singles and a walk netted the Tigers a run in the seventh before Blake Wright doubled home two more. A throwing error from Will McGillis gifted Clemson another run, and the score was 7-3 headed to the bottom of the 7th.

Sloppy defense and pitching from Clemson saw the Gamecocks storm back and take an 8-7 lead after two singles, an error, a walk, and a three-run bomb off the bat of Carson Hornung. Jay Dill, the Tigers’ Saturday starter from the previous two weekends, gave up the home run and put himself in position to get credit for the loss.

Cade Austin pitched a scoreless 8th that was almost not scoreless, as Caleb Denny caught the final out of the inning while on the ground after slipping in the outfield. Denny then doubled in Braylen Wimmer for a ninth run, and Cole Messina made the score 11-7 on a mammoth blast that hit off the building across the street in left field. Chris Veach gave up two in the ninth but secured the victory to even the series at 1-1.

The Reedy River Rivalry went the way of the Tigers as they clinched the series win on Saturday. Sunday’s game at Founder’s Park will begin at 1:30 on the SECNetwork+ and the ESPN App.