The Sarge

TOP 9 - Michael Roth swings at the first pitch he sees this year. Laces a double to right field. The kid is just incredible. TJ Costen in to pinch run. He moves to second when Rosenberg bunts him up. Marzilli down in the count 2-2. Moves to 3-2. Infield playing in. Gott blows him away on a high fastball. English being pinch hit for. Celek Ks on three pitches. FINAL: Kentucky 4 - Carolina 3. L: Price (2-1). South Carolina falls to 15-3 and plays Kentucky on Sunday at 1 p.m.

BOTTOM 8 - Williams hits a soft liner to second. Seddon catches it. Koumas Ks Reida looking on a breaking ball that was probably out of the zone, but we'll take it. Two down. Seddon fields a hopper and fires to first for the out. Gamecocks got to try to get something here. Last chance. Matthews, Rosenberg, Marzilli due up. UK leads 4-3.

TOP 8 - Walker pops a 2-0 pitch up to first. One down. Greiner goes behind in the count 1-2 and then flies out to center field. Two down. Dantzler up, who is becoming remarkably quiet. Dantzler falls behind in the count 0-2. He ends up walking on six pitches to bring up Erik Payne, the guy who is probably swinging the second-hottest bat on the team right now. Payne drops a soft single to center. Bright comes in to pinch run for Dantzler. Bright on second, Payne on first with two outs. Pankake up and UK brings in RHP Tim Peterson. Kyle Martin pinch hits and goes down swinging on a pitch up and out of the zone. New infield will be Seddon at second, Bright at short, and Payne at third. UK still leads 4-3.

BOTTOM 7 - Leadoff single through the right side for the speedy Cousino. Bunt situation. Price misses on the first two pitches. Make that three. After a strike, Zellers pushes his bunt to first. Walker mishandles, but recovers in time to flip to Payne. Runner in scoring position, one out. Maile is walked intentionally. Webb coming in and goes ahead in the count 0-2 on Reed on a couple of big breaking balls. Another high, slicing pop up to left. Wind blowing hard towards the left field line. English breaks the wrong way and can't recover. That's two out there he should have caught and that dropped. That brings around one run and there are two in scoring position now for Flynn. He pops up to short. Koumas coming in. He walks the first batter on four pitches to load the bases. Going 1-1 in the count to Riddle, he gets a flare behind second base. Pankake tracks it down. Nice little play there. Kentucky leads 4-3

TOP 7 - Sullivan Ks looking on a fastball inside. Rosenberg Ks swinging. This Reed guy is pretty good. Marzilli shoots a single back through the box and extends his streak to 19 games of reaching base. English pops out to center to end the inning. Gamecocks and UK tied 3-3.

BOTTOM 6 - Leadoff walk on five pitches for Price. Tyler Webb headed down to the bullpen. On a bunt attempt, Price hits McCarthy. Riddle will obviously bunt here. He takes strike one thinking it was outside. It was close. Fouls off the second pitch. He's having to swing away, and bounces to third. Dantzler fields it, steps on the bag, and fires to first for the double play. Puts a runner on second with two down. Williams hits a chopper back up the middle. It takes a bigger-than-expected hop off the dirt and over the head of Payne and his glove. I think he would have at least been able to knock it down if it hadn't taken the big hop. Ball gets into center and scores the tying run. Price gets out of the inning though after that. Score tied 3-3

TOP 6 - Gamecocks tie up the score hitting back-to-back doubles to lead off the sixth. Walker serves one to right center while Greiner ropes one down the left field line. Dantzler turns on one to deep right, but it's caught just shy of the track. Greiner moves to third. Infield comes in to try to cut off the run with Payne up, who is first pitch swinging and misses. Second pitch swinging and misses - both breaking balls in the dirt. Pankake drops a single to center. Two outs, Sullivan coming to the dish. Pitching change for the Wildcats. Designated hitter A.J. Reed coming in. I believe that means they now forfeit the DH. If he gets yanked, the pitcher will hit the rest of the game ... I believe. Pankake is cut down trying to steal on an 0-2 pitch. Gamecocks lead 3-2

BOTTOM 5 - Zellers lines out to left on the first pitch. Price entered the inning having thrown 67 pitches - 41 strikes. Two pitches to Maile and a pop out to right. Now he's at 70 total pitches. Price gets Reed swinging on seven pitches, so that's 77 total for Price thus far. UK leads 2-1. Walker, Greiner, Dantzler due up.

TOP 5 - Rosenberg grounds meekly to short. One down. Marzilli Ks. English bunts back to the mound. Still 2-1 UK.

BOTTOM 4 - Riddle goes down looking at strike three - a fastball on the inside corner for the first out of the inning. Payne picks up a bouncer a couple steps to his right. Two down. Two-out walk to nine-hole hitter Reida. Payne fields a pop out behind the first base bag to end the inning. UK leads 2-1.

TOP 4 - Erik Payne strikes out to begin the inning. 1-2 breaking ball. Pankake hits a hot short to third. Off McCarthy's glove and properly scored a hit. Sullivan up. He bounces into an easy 4-3 double play. UK leads 2-1.

BOTTOM 3 - Zellers grounds through the left side to lead off the inning with a single. Leadoff hitter has reached in all three innings so far for Kentucky. Welp, now there are no runners on after a 6-4-3 double play. Easy all the way around. Two down. Price hits Reed and then Flynn reaches on a hot shot to second that Payne can't handle. McCarthy digs in. He hits a two-hopper to third. Easy enough play for Dantzler. UK leads 2-1.

TOP 3 - English walks. Walker hits a chopper towards short. SS is slow to react and by the time he charges, he gives Walker enough time to book it down the line and beat the throw by a half step. Great work by Walk. Greiner tries to check his swing on a slider but bounces into an easy 5-4-3 double play. These guys are seeing fastball out of Grundy's hand and its slider. When they recognize it, they can't check their swing. Dantzler down in the count 1-2. He goes down swinging to end the inning. UK leads 2-1.

BOTTOM 2 - Riddle hits a high pop fly to left slicing towards the line. I don't think English ever saw it off the bat. He's frozen and the ball is a long way away. He picks it up late and hustles over to the wall and holds Riddle to a double. Price gets Williams looking and Reida to ground to third for the second out of the inning. Cousino frozen on a 2-2 breaking ball to end the inning. Nice little pitching around a leadoff double.

TOP 2 - Payne falls behind in the count 0-2 but then laces a 1-2 single to left field to begin the inning. Pankake walks on four pitches -- a couple close, a couple not so much. Sullivan up. Personally, I'd like to see them play for a big inning here. Sean Sullivan bunts right back towards the mound. the ball gets underneath the glove of the pitcher and everyone is safe. Chance for a big inning. Rosenberg grounds into an easy 4-6-3 double play. Scores one, but chances of a big inning are slim now. Yeck. Marzilli has seen four sliders now and he's been fooled on all of them. Grounded to short in the first inning, can't check his swing on the first of this at-bat, watches a strike, then barely checks on one in the dirt. Grounds out to second to end the inning. Kentucky leads 2-1

BOTTOM 1 - Cousino serves a single to left field to lead it off for Kentucky. Count goes full on Zellers, who is hit on the payoff pitch - a high, tight fastball. Reed grounds to Payne. He feeds Pankake, who can't get it out of his glove cleanly. Would have been a close play. English catches a fly ball in foul territory which allows the runner to come in from third. That goes as a sac fly for Flynn. McCarthy goes down on strikes, but UK gets the first runs on the board. Kentucky leads 2-0

TOP 1 - Evan Marzilli digs in against LHP Grundy. He signed and played a year for Miami before leaving the program. He was in JUCO last year, then came to Kentucky. He's very highly-thought of as a pro prospect. Top 100 kind of guy. Marzilli tries to hold his swing against Grundy on the first pitch, but he can't and dribbles one to the shortstop. One down. English hits a one-hopper to third and is thrown out. Walker up now. Grundy threw three pitches to the first two hitters. Walker ropes a double to left. LFer didn't get a good read on it. Froze and then went back. Very slow reaction time. One on, two down. Greiner walks on five pitches. Dantzler up, but he pops out to left field to end the inning. No score.

South Carolina

CF - Evan Marzilli
LF - Tanner English
1B - Christian Walker
DH - Grayson Greiner
3B - LB Dantzler
2B - Erik Payne
SS - Joey Pankake
RF - Sean Sullivan
C - Dante Rosenberg

RHP - Matt Price ... 2-0, 3.10, 20.1 IP, 10 H, 7 ER, 7 BB, 27 K, .139 OBA

Kentucky

CF - Austin Cousino
LF - Zac Zellers
1B - Luke Maile
DH - A.J. Reed
RF - Cameron Flynn
3B - Thomas McCarthy
2B - J.T. Riddle
C - Michael Williams
SS - Matt Reida

LHP Jerad Grundy ... 2.25, 3-0, 24.0 IP, 16 H, 6 ER, 7 BB, 23 K, OBA .180

I can confirm the sun has come out today. South Carolina has arrived and they're taking batting practice on the field right now. Costen is still shagging in left instead taking ground balls on the infield. Not much wind, if any, today. Beautiful day though. Couldn't ask for nicer. Should get the lineups fairly soon.