South Carolina Gamecocks make SportsCenter Top 10

South Carolina baseball is getting hot at the right time. Mark Kingston's club has won five of their past seven games, including two of three against a top-5 Kentucky Wildcats squad and two of three from the Missouri Tigers on the road. The offense has been much better of late, and the USC pitching staff has done enough, especially in the bullpen.

Even so, the South Carolina Gamecocks faithful almost had a different outlook on things on Sunday as the YardCocks were in danger of dropping the series to Missouri.

Already trailing 3-1 early in the game, Missouri had the bases juiced when sophomore Jackson Lovich hit what looked like a grand slam. Instead, Gamecock outfielder Austin Brinling timed his jump well, reached his glove over the wall, and pulled the ball back. Mizzou still scored thanks to a runner tagging up on the play, but Carolina escaped the inning down just 4-1 instead of 7-1 or worse.

The Gamecocks fought back and wound up winning 9-4, but if Lovich hit a grand slam, things would have been much different.

Brinling's game-changing play was so good, in fact, that the Gamecock outfielder made his way onto the SportsCenter Top 10.

Amazingly, it is not Brinling's first time on the Top 10. While he was a member of the North Florida Ospreys program last year, he made a diving catch that earned him a feature on SportsCenter, but his #2 spot on the Sunday night/Monday morning shows bested his previous #6 ranking last season.

Brinling's play was emblematic of his recent play as the senior outfielder has played his best over the past couple of weeks. The speedster finally earned consistent playing time and has been a steady contributor who has played a big role in the Gamecocks winning. Other than SEC Player of the Week Cole Messina, one can argue that Brinling has been the best offensive player on the team for the last two weeks or so.

Brinling and the Gamecocks have a mid-week contest at Winthrop coming up before a pivotal three-game series against the Georgia Bulldogs that begins on Thursday night.