South Carolina Comes Back Late, Completes the Sweep Against Penn
Though it looked bleak late in the game, South Carolina continued their perfect season with a late-game comeback against Penn. With the hard-fought win, South Carolina advances to 8-0 and completes their second sweep of the season.
After easy wins against UMass Lowell, Winthrop, and Queens, South Carolina was bound to face some real adversity. That adversity came against Penn, who battled with the Gamecocks for all three games of the series. Each of the three games was close, but none were as threatening to the Gamecocks' perfect record as Sunday's game.
The final game of the series presented the Gamecocks with many "firsts" for the series, but perhaps none were as imminent as the Gamecocks' first time trailing in a game this season. Though the Gamecocks were the first to strike with an RBI triple from Caleb Denny and an RBI walk from Gavin Casas, giving South Carolina an early 2-0 lead, things quickly went south.
Penn, who had only scored four runs through the first two games of the series, fired back and hung up one run in the fifth and three in the sixth thanks to some efficient offense. South Carolina's starter Jack Mahoney was solid through the first few innings. However, Penn's explosive fifth/sixth inning knocked him out of the game.
Shortstop Braylen Wimmer, who has looked like one of the best players in the nation through this first stretch of games, answered Penn's three run sixth inning with a solo homer of his own, bringing South Carolina within one run of Penn.
South Carolina worked their way to a tie game in the seventh, thanks to an RBI groundout for Cole Messina, which scored Talmadge Lecroy. Though South Carolina looked reinvigorated late in the game, Penn again took the lead in the eighth via a solo blast from Left Fielder Cole McGonigal.
With just six outs left in the game, the Gamecocks looked like they might be on their way to their first loss of the year. But South Carolina's homer-happy offense, which led the Gamecocks to their unbeaten record thus far, returned during the eighth inning. Back-to-back solo homers from Casas and Will Mcgillis gave the Gamecocks a one-run lead with just one inning left.
South Carolina elected to bring in Chris Veach to close the one-run game. Veach struck out one batter in a quick 10-pitch inning, receiving the save and finalizing the sweep over Penn.
The unbeaten Gamecocks will take on North Carolina A&T on Tuesday before starting the Palmetto Series which begins Friday. Clemson will be South Carolina's biggest challenge yet, so winning games like Sunday's play a big role in momentum.
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