The Sarge

BOTTOM 9 - Matt P with a quick out on Alvford. Down to two outs left for the Tigers. Ground out to third. Glevenyak hits a rope, but it's right at English. Gamecocks are lucky that Auburn has hit quite a few at-'em balls today. Of course, Carolina has done the same thing. Austin pinch hitting as Auburn's final hope. He goes down swinging on the fifth pitch of the at-bat. FINAL: Carolina 5 - Auburn 3 W: Roth (6-1). The Gamecocks (40-16) will play the Florida/Vanderbilt loser at 7 p.m. on Friday.

TOP 9 - Dantzler dumps a single into right field for a leadoff single. Greiner pops out to left. Hit-and-run attempt goes awry and Dantzler is thrown out at second base rather easily. Matthews pops out to right to end the inning. Auburn down to their last chance. Gamecocks lead 5-3.

BOTTOM 8 - Price strikes out Gonzalez on some high heat. Make that two strikeouts for Price against the top two hitters in the order. Tella drops a double to right field in front of a diving Matthews. Bryant then singles through the left side to score Tella and bring the Auburn Tigers with a bloop and a blast of tying this game. Savage puts a good swing on a first-pitch from Price, but English tracks it down. Gamecocks lead 5-3

TOP 8 - English bunts back to the pitcher. Easy play. One down. Vergy grounds to second. Pankake walks. Marzilli drops a bunt and Bryant picks it up right near the line. Probably should have let it try go foul. Walker grounds out to first to end the inning. Gamecocks lead 5-2.

BOTTOM 7 - Roth gives up a pair of singles to begin the seventh inning to Savage and Alvord. Glevenyak bunts both players into scoring position and pinch hitter Kody Ortman will come to the plate. Meyers comes out and calls in Matt Price. Auburn pinch hits for the pinch hitter. Cullen Wacker coming to the dish and takes a called strike on a breaking ball. Wacker doesn't stand a chance. He didn't look like he wanted to hit at all. Goes down on strikes. Bowen with a bouncer to second. Vergason has to make a charging play and throw across his body. Solid. Very nice play, especially considering he's struggled defensively today. Has been shaky out there for the afternoon. Gets out of the inning though. Gamecocks lead 5-2.

TOP 7 - Marzilli up and grounds out to first to begin the inning. Walker, who has a sacrifice fly in the first inning to center, a ground out to third and a strikeout looking, hits a triple to center. Tella tries to make a diving play on a ball a bit to his left, but it gets by him. Should have just conceded what would have been a single. Dantzler up. He's walked intentionally to set up a double play. Greiner goes down on strikes with runners at the corners. That brings up Matthews, who has three hits on the day. He's walked on four pitches to load the bases. None of those pitches were close. I think that was done pretty much intentionally to bring up Payne. Tanner will let Michael Roth hit for himself, which means he loses the DH for the rest of the game. Auburn brings in reliever Justin Bryant, who Ks Roth looking to end the inning. Gamecocks lead 5-2 at the stretch.

BOTTOM 6 - Bowen hits a routine grounder to second. Vergason bobbles it, then has to rush his throw, which is wild. Ball goes into the dugout and Bowen goes to second. He then moves to third on a ground out by Gonzalez to Walker. Game's not quite over yet, folks. Simpson flies out to deep center to bring home a run. Tella singles with two outs. Bryant hits one on the screws, but English doesn't have to move. Roth got hit a little bit hard that inning, but he gets through it without much damage. Gamecocks lead 5-2

TOP 6 - English hits a sharp ground ball but it's right at Alvord, who also goes into self defense mode and makes the play. Vergason bounces out to short for the second out of the inning. Pankake lines out to second. Nice play by Simpson there to end the inning. First 1-2-3 inning for the Tigers. Gamecocks lead 5-1.

BOTTOM 5 - Bryant with a leadoff single to left field to give Auburn three hits on the day. The last two guys who have gotten a hit have been cut down on the bases. Savage tucks a double inside the third base bag to put two in scoring position with no one out. Alvord pops out to shallow right and can't advance the runnners. Glevenyak flies out to deep right, which is plenty deep enough to get the first Auburn run of the day home. Andrews grounds out to second to end the inning. Gamecocks lead 5-1

TOP 5 - Christian Walker goes down on strikes. That's only 20 times this year for him. Pretty good number. Dantzler smokes a hot ground ball to first. Savage in self defense mode, knocks it down, and flips to first for the second out. Greiner and Matthews knock back-to-back doubles to give the Gamecocks another run. Matthews swipes second. Payne pops out to deep second to end the inning. Gamecocks lead 5-0

BOTTOM 4 - Slow roller to Pankake, who has to charge and fire quickly to just barely get Gonzalez at first base. Simpson breaks a streak of nine straight retired with a single, but he's caught trying to steal second base. Tella grounds out to Pankake. Roth has still faced the minimum through four innings. Gamecocks lead 4-0.

TOP 4 - Three straight hits to start the inning for the Gamecocks. Dantzler and Greiner both with singles to put runners at the corners. Matthews delivers a single through the right side for his second hit of the day. Payne doesn't come close to executing a two-strike bunt -- of course, why bunt when you're tattooing the guy all around the yard? Strikeout. One down. English strikes out for the second time. Two down. Vergason up and gets a good piece of an offering from Smith. He hits a sharp ground ball that hits off the second base umpire. By rule, the ball is dead and everyone is safe. That loads the bases. Hard to tell from my angle whether or not Simpson would have gotten there and had a play. Either way, bases loaded for Pankake, who turns on a first pitch offering and hits it just foul of the left field corner. That would have scored two. Marzilli hits one on the screws, but right at Glevenyak at short. Couldn't have put a better swing on it. Gamecocks lead 4-0

BOTTOM 3 - Roth strikes out his second straight hitter to begin the bottom of the third inning. That's four total. He's still faced the minimum through eight hitters and Andrews hits a weak bouncer to second base. Vergason makes the play easily. Make that 5 Ks for Roth. He's on his game today. He wants two more starts at home and not just one. Gets Bowen on strikes to end the inning. Gamecocks lead 2-0.

TOP 3 - Cory Luckie just flat stinks against the Gamecocks. He gives up a leadoff double to Vergason. Luckie is pulled in favor of RHP Slade Smith. Auburn needs a couple more wins to potentially get into the NCAAs, so they're not going to let this game get out of control early. RHP Slade Smith called in to pitch. Pankake bunts Vergason up to third to get him 90 feet away with one out. Marzilli up and hits a sharp ground ball right back at the mound. The infield was in, so that would have gotten through easily, but Smith knocks it down and makes the play at first. Vergy holds hoping Walker can get him in. He's stranded there though as Walk ground 5-3 to end the inning. Still 2-0 Gamecocks.

BOTTOM 2 - Roth out there and motors right through the inning. Bryant lines out to center, Savage grounds out to second, and Alvord goes down looking to end the inning. Good work there for Roth. Gamecocks lead 2-0.

TOP 2 - Greiner grounds out to short, but Matthews shoots a single through the right side. Matthews takes second on a swing-and-miss by Payne on a ball in the dirt that squeezed by the catcher. Not a good swing, but he bounces right back and sends a deep line drive to left. Simpson just missed a diving catch and it goes for an RBI double by Payne, who tries to go three. I can't see a replay, but it looked like Payne was pretty safe to me. Hard to tell from where I'm sitting though. English Ks to end the inning. Gamecocks lead 2-0

BOTTOM 1 - Auburn gets the inning started with an infield single to short off of Michael Roth. The Gamecocks will obviously pay great attention with runners on base as Auburn is a great stealing team, especially Gonzalez, the leadoff hitter, who is 30-of-34 on the year. Roth gets simpson swinging and then immediately picks off Gonzalez to give him two outs. Tella strikes out to end the inning. Gamecocks up 1-0.

TOP 1 - LHP Cory Luckie on the mound for the Tigers. Hasn't had much success against the Gamecocks in years past. He gives up a double to Joey Pankake to start the game. Line drive to right field. Gonzalez makes a diving attempt, but the ball didn't quite stick in his glove. Marzilli bunts him up to third for Walker, who lines a 2-1 pitch to deep center. Plenty deep enough to get Pankake home. It would have been plenty deep enough to get me home. LB Dantzler just launched a deep fly ball to center. Wind blowing out, the park still holds it. Ball doesn't travel well here between the alleys. The ball is caught on the track to end the inning. Gamecocks up 1-0

5:10 p.m. - Kentucky just polished off Mississippi State 4-1 to claim that game. South Carolina and Auburn is set to start at 5:35 EDT.

Carolina

SS - Joey Pankake
CF - Evan Marzilli
1B - Christian Walker
3B - LB Dantzler
C - Grayson Greiner
RF - Adam Matthews
DH - Erik Payne
LF - Tanner English
2B - Chase Vergason

LHP Michael Roth 2.66

Auburn

RF - Jay Gonzalez
2B - Creede Simpson
CF - Ryan Tella
DH - Justin Bryant
1B - Patrick Savage
3B - Zach Alvord
SS - Dan Glevenyak
LF - Bobby Andrews
C - Caleb Bowen

LHP Cory Luckie 3.42, 2-1, 23.2 IP, 27 H, 9 ER, 9 BB, 13 K, OBA. .290

4:25 p.m. - No lineups yet. Haven't seen the Gamecocks at the ballpark yet either. Kentucky is ahead 3-1 right now on Mississippi State in the bottom of the seventh inning.

South Carolina and Auburn are set to do battle in an elimination game. The Gamecocks will throw Michael Roth while the Tigers are more than likely going to go with LHP Cory Luckie, who has been a guy that they have leaned on during his career, but he hasn't pitched much this season coming in predominantly out of the bullpen. He has a 3.42 ERA in 16 appearances (two starts) and 23.2 innings pitched. South Carolina has had great success against him in the past.

In my opinion, this is a must-win game for the Gamecocks to be in the running for a national seed. I think the players know that.

Right now, LSU just cold-clocked Ole Miss to stay alive and send the Rebels packing. Kentucky and Mississippi State just started up. Stay tuned for news and notes from round the park up here.

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