With a big SEC series down in Gainesville looming, South Carolina will try to pick up a midweek win against North Carolina on Tuesday.
Weather permitting, first pitch is at 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra. Dylan Eskew (2-2, 4.83 ERA) will get the start on the mound.
GamecockCentral is here in Charlotte at Truist Field to provide live updates throughout the evening.
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South Carolina hangs on late to salvage series finale
By: Jack Veltri
It was still early in the game. But the spot felt as big as it could get, especially with the way Texas A&M had been hitting the ball.
After a wild pitch, the Aggies had runners on second and third with two outs, trailing by two. This could’ve been where they took back control, like they had all weekend. But instead, Matthew Becker threw a 2-2 pitch on the outside corner for strike three to end the threat.
“Felt really good. Every out just kind of feels the same now,” Becker said. “Not that I’m not excited, but I get one out, and yeah it’s the third inning, but we’ve got a lot of baseball to play. So feels good to get out of a tight situation. It’s awesome every time.”
Becker might’ve not been able to give South Carolina a ton of length on Sunday. But his outing was just what the No. 22 Gamecocks (22-10, 6-6 SEC) needed to kickstart a 6-5 win over No. 3 Texas A&M. With the win, they’ll avoid the series sweep and move back to .500 in SEC play.
“It’s unknown right now and once we figure that out, obviously, if we have a rubber match any Sunday, it’s going to go our way,” Ethan Petry said. “We’ve just got to find a way to win either Friday or Saturday. It’s just going to go our way on Sunday. … We are more energetic, every day is a good Sunday.”
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After pitching mainly out of the bullpen this year, head coach Mark Kingston elected to give Becker the Sunday start. And it was a move that made sense with how lefty-heavy the Aggies lineup could be.
With this in mind, the left-hander pitched four innings of one-run ball, giving up five hits. His command was sharp throughout the afternoon as he racked up eight strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter.
“Matthew was very good today. That’s what we were hoping to see with him in the starting role,” Kingston said. “He’s been very good out of the bullpen. We were hoping he would have the same poise and comfort level as a starter and he did. Now, we just obviously want to get him deeper than four innings.”
As the Aggies couldn’t plate many early runs, it gave the Gamecocks a chance to strike first, and they did. With a runner on second and one out in the first, Petry cranked a two-run shot over the right field wall to quickly make it 2-0.
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In the third, after falling behind in the count 0-2, Kennedy Jones hit a rocket deep into left for a solo homer. His sixth blast of the year made it 3-0. After A&M got a run back, South Carolina added two more runs with the bases loaded in the fourth to go up by four runs.
“When your best hitters are producing, you score runs and you win games — it’s that simple. Petry had a really good game today. Casas had the three hits as you mentioned. Parker did a really good job in that leadoff spot getting on base four times. Reeves was robbed of probably three RBIs on that great play in center field,” Kingston said.
“We had opportunities and their defense, you’ve got to tip your cap to them, their defense took away a lot of runs from us today because they’re so athletic. They do everything well. They pitch really well, they’re really tough to pitch to. But on top of that, defensively, they take runs away because they’re so good out there. It was a good win because it was such a good team we just played.”
After Becker’s outing came to an end, Chris Veach, who pitched on Saturday, started the fifth. Veach managed to retire the side in order. But in the sixth, the right-hander served up a two-out, two-run homer to Hayden Schott to cut the lead in half.
South Carolina added another run in the seventh to make it a three-run lead. But the Aggies continued to battle back, plating two more runs in the eighth off Garrett Gainey.
In the ninth, Gainey bounced back by retiring the side in order to seal the deal.
“He was a different guy in that last inning than he was in the previous inning. And it was against really good hitters, obviously,” Kingston said. “Whatever he did in that last inning, we need to talk about it, be conscious of knowing what got him to that spot mentally and physically. He was really good that last inning.”
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