As Eli Jones’ left leg came up and moved towards home plate, JMU’s Ryan Dooley was on a mad dash towards second base. The Dukes had been a team that loved to run and steal bases all year long, averaging roughly two per game.
For Cole Messina, he was already tested once on Friday. In his first attempt in the second inning, he airmailed his throw into centerfield. So this time, he had to be right on the money. And he was.
Jones’ 92 mile-per-hour fastball went a bit outside, which helped Messina. As the batter swung through the pitch, Messina fired a rocket down to second as his catcher’s mask fell off his face. Parker Noland applied a quick tag to get what would be a big first out of the third inning.
From there, JMU would continue to test him. The Dukes stole four bases in the game, but Messina also caught them two more times in critical situations. On the day, the Gamecocks’ catcher threw out three baserunners in an 8-7 win in the Raleigh Regional opener.
“What I don’t want to be lost today is he threw three guys out at second base too, which was incredible for the momentum shift of that game. If those guys are safe and they get another hit, they extend the lead,” head coach Mark Kingston said.
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“Cole did a great job of controlling their running game just a little bit to give us some outs there to give us a chance. And as I said, he’s one of the best players in the country. He’s our heart and soul. But we all say that. And it’s the absolute truth.”
Kingston would be right about that. If Messina was late on any of those three throws down to second, the outcome may have been different. JMU led for most of the way on Friday and carried a two-run lead all the way into the ninth with two outs. Then, Messina came up to bat as the tying run.
And just like he had been doing all season, Messina put the team on his back and wasn’t going to let them lose this game.
With one of JMU’s best relievers on the mound, Messina got a pitch that hung in the zone. And as soon as he swung, that baseball wasn’t coming back. He demolished the first pitch he saw and hit a game-tying two-run shot to keep South Carolina alive. And one inning later, the Gamecocks would go onto walk it off with a Will Tippett sacrifice fly.
“He’s a dog for us. He’s the heart and soul of this team,” Tippett said. “It’s just amazing to see.”
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Up to that point, JMU had walked Messina three times to avoid pitching to him. But since it didn’t want to put him on base as the go-ahead run, it took a gamble to pitch to him.
“I mean, they’re walking him three times a game and then they finally pitch to him and he goes off. That’s just a testament to what he does,” Chris Veach said.
Since May 16, Messina has been on absolute tear. He’s 16 for his last 33 (.485) at the plate with six homers, 19 RBI and 35 total bases. Teams have also walked him 12 times, showing how much fear they have had in pitching to him.
With how down in the dumps South Carolina was to end the regular season, the junior has really stepped up in the big moments almost every time and with similar results to what he did on Friday.
“When you’re a coach, you’re very fortunate to have a guy like Cole Messina,” Kingston said. He comes from a great family. They’ve kind of built that into him. And he’s evolved a great amount at South Carolina over the years because he hasn’t always been at this level. And so his improvement curve has been very, very positive.”
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