FINAL: Gamecocks Withstand Late-Game Surge From Florida To Secure First Road Series Win Of The Season
After slamming the door shut on the Florida Gators late in game one on Friday night, the South Carolina Gamecocks went into game two looking to clinch their first road series victory of the season. While the Gators mounted a late-game charge, Mark Kingston's squad was able to make enough plays to seal a 9-8 win and their first road series win over Florida since 2011.
The first inning saw each team's star bat, South Carolina's Ethan Petry and Florida's Jac Caglianone, hit a two-run homer to open up the scoring early. The very next inning, the Gamecocks leader, both in the locker room and now in the lineup, Cole Messina, knocked in two runs with a double to left-center, which was followed by a bloop RBI-single by Petry two batters later. The Gators would get one run back in the bottom half of the inning off a solo homerun from Ty Evans, but couldn't muster any offense beyond that. Between the third and sixth innings, only one run would be scored between both teams (Carolina in the 5th), as Ty Good and Roman Kimball for the Gamecocks and Florida's Liam Peterson would settle in, with Peterson in particular escaping two bases-loaded jams.
However, Carolina's offense would awaken once again in the seventh inning, as designated hitter Dalton Reeves cranked one out over the right-centerfield wall for two runs, and then Will Tippett and Parker Noland would each hit a double to extend the team's lead to six. Feeling the series slipping away, the Gators would make one last push, scoring a run off a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning, and then in the eighth inning, bringing home another four runs via two singles and a wild pitch. Connor McCreery, who came in for Kimball with two runners on base and no outs in the inning, would weather the storm and get the Gators' two biggest power hitters in Caglianone and Colby Shelton to lineout and popout respectively. In the bottom of the ninth, true freshman Tyler Pitzer would come to pitch and, despite giving up a one-out walk and single would get a strikeout and groundout to help the Gamecocks escape with their third one-run win of the week.
South Carolina will go for the sweep on Sunday afternoon with game three beginning at 12 PM EDT.
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