South Carolina Baseball: After bee delay, former Gamecock crushes walk-off bomb
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina baseball fans didn't have a game to watch on Tuesday night as their Gamecocks' mid-week game was on Wednesday this week. The empty schedule gave them the opportunity to watch some of their favorite team's former players in the Big Leagues, and for those who stayed up to watch the games on the West Coast, something pretty rare happened.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks had their game delayed because of a swarm of bees.
After a professional beekeeper on a boom lift saved the day by removing the swarm, the game got underway, and former South Carolina baseball star Christian Walker was able to be the Diamondbacks' second hero of the night.
Walker opened the scoring with a bomb in the 4th inning, but it looked like Arizona was going to lose 2-1 as no one else could get anything going on offense. However, a rally in the 9th allowed the D-Backs to tie the score, sending the game into extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th frame with his team down 3-2, Walker stepped to the plate again and hit an absolute rocket over the wall in left field that won the game 4-3.
The home run was Christian Walker's first-ever walk-off home run at the MLB level, and the two-homer game marked his first multi-homer effort of the 2024 season.
The two blasts were Walker's 6th and 7th of the season, and his total of 7 home runs is good for 10th in all of Major League Baseball. He is also in the top-13 in MLB in RBI, walks, and runs scored. After being snubbed from the All-Star Game the past couple of seasons, Walker is well on his way to forcing his way into the Midsummer Classic in 2024.
South Carolina baseball fans hope their Gamecocks do their best Christian Walker impression this week as they take on the East Tennessee State Buccaneers on Wednesday and the Missouri Tigers on the road over the weekend.