The Sarge

BOTTOM 9 - Gamecocks send Marzilli, Walker, and Greiner to the dish. Can't ask to be in a better spot in the order. Marzilli Ks on a high fastball. Walker doubles to the gap in left center. Tying run will be at the plate twice. Greiner hits a frozen rope to left field over the glove of the shortstop. Walker scores from second and Greiner is held to a single. Costen up now for the Gamecocks with Dantzler on deck. Costen falls behidn 0-2 swinging at a changeup in the dirt. After fouling off a pitch, he ropes a double down the left field line. No way Greiner can score on that one. Two in scoring position for LB Dantzler, who is walked intentionally. Bama calls in RHP Jake Hubbard to face Sean Sullivan with one out. Sullivan is first-pitch swinging. With a drawn in infield (I don't really understand it, really), Sullivan's bloop into shallow left center scores two. LFer Gregory overran the ball which enabled Costen to score from second standing up. FINAL: Carolina 12 - Alabama 11 W: Belcher (3-2). Sean Sullivan with a 2-RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to win it.

TOP 9 - Evan Beal gives up a leadoff walk to Jon Kelton, who advances all the way to third with two outs on a sacrifice bunt and ground out to third. Roberts up looking for the RBI hit. He drops a 1-1 single to right field -- should add that Sean Sullivan is in there now. He's there because Matthews was PH for by Roth. Roth then by Celek. Nolan Belcher now coming in. Delayed steal attempt on the first pitch by Belcher. Greiner throws out the runner by a mile. Alabama leads 11-9

BOTTOM 8 - English up, then down on strikes. Vergason hits a line drive back up the middle. SS Jared Reaves makes a very nice leaping catch. USC fans give a little golf clap for the effort and execution. Very nice play there. Pankake to the dish. He hits a big-league pop out to left field to end the inning. We're headed to the ninth with Bama up 10-9. Beal back to the mound.

TOP 8 - Reaves flies out to left center off of Beal to start the inning. He gets Moore on strikes for out number two. And another strikeout. Gamecocks have six more outs to work with. Tanner English due up. Bama leads 10-9.

BOTTOM 7 - Christian Walker digs in and sends a deep fly ball to straightaway center. Dugas tracks it down on the track for out number one. Greiner grounds out. Kyle Martin pinch hits for Erik Payne and walks with two outs to bring up Dantzler. He ropes a double to the RF corner. Moore gets over there and plays it cleanly. Gets it in and Holbrook has to hold Costen, who pinch ran for Martin. Roth is going to pinch hit for Matthews. Now Celek is pinch hitting for Roth since Bama countered with LHP Jon Keller - who gave up the long ball to Matthews in game one. Two losses in one day? At least not now as he gets Celek swinging for the downs. Bama up 10-9.

TOP 7 - Pankake charged with another error. Slow ground ball to his right - fields and throws across his body to first. Throw is low and Walker can't pick it out of the dirt. Make that 16 this year. Sac bunt up to second. Nine-hole hitter Tullidge walks on four pitches. Two on, one out. Dugas comes to the plate and singles through the right side. Adam Matthews, as up and down a day as he's had, charges aggressively and comes up firing. Throws a strike to Greiner, who catches it and applies the tag for the second out of the inning. Beal delivers a strikeout to Gregory and gives a solid fist pump as he leaves the mound. Bama still up 10-9 at the stretch.

BOTTOM 6 - Nine-hole hitter Vergason hits a little dribbler back in front of the plate. Booth scrambles and makes the play throwing him out at first base for the first out. Count goes to 2-2 on Pankake and you could hear Tanner yell up here at him to "be a tough out" ... next pitch Pankake grounds out to third. Two down. Marzilli grounds out to first to end the inning. Bama leads 10-9.

TOP 6 - Error No. 2 of the game 15 of the season for Pankake. Backhands a grounder in the hole and, again, drops it on the exchange. Most of Pankake's errors have been of the throwing variety this year, but these are picking it up. Gregory tries to sacrifice him up, but screws around and bunts for a hit. Well-placed, but Montgomery wasn't real quick in getting there. Beal coming in to pitch. Reaves bunts both runners up. Moore singles back up the middle. Third base coach, for some inexplicable reason, sends the runner from second. Marzilli throws a perfect one-hop strike to Greiner with plenty of time to field and tag the runner. He drops the ball at the plate though. Popped out of the mitt. Runner slides through the shin guard and scores. Moore advances to second on the throw and the Tide are back on top. Beal gets Smith swinging at a sweeping slider in the opposite batters box. Rosecrans pops out to third to end the inning, but the damage is done. Alabama leads 10-9

BOTTOM 5 - First 1-2-3 inning for Alabama. Dantzler got one just off the end of the bat and flies out to deep right. Matthews goes down looking. English flies out for the final out of the inning. Gamecocks lead 9-8.

TOP 5 - Another run for Alabama in the inning. First two runners reach on a walk and single to center. Booth popped up to second - infield fly rule. Both runners move up on a wild pitch to Roberts, who then hits an RBI ground out to short. Tullidge grounds out to second to end the inning. Evan Beal began to toss in the bullpen. Don't see a guy allow eight runs and 10 hits and stay in the game this long very often. Monty has had some tough luck, but a lot of hard-hit balls, too. Gamecocks lead 9-8

BOTTOM 4 - Tanner English leads off with an infield single. Hits a chopper to third. No way A-Rod makes that play on English. Vergy bunts him up to second. Sacrifice. Pankake singles through the left side. English had to pause at second to be sure the ball got through. It does, and he takes third. Runners at the corners for Marzilli, who flies out to the track in left. That brings home a run and Bama now only leads by one. Walker takes his base on pitches. That brings up Greiner, who hits a high fly ball deep to left field. Ball, again, keeps carrying and carrying. Lands just over the left field wall for Greiner's fifth home run of the season. Payne goes down swinging. Gamecocks lead 9-7

TOP 4 - Wait - no one scored? 1-2-3 inning for Montgomery. Six-pitch inning, too. Pop out to deep second, fly ball to left, and Moore flies to right. Bama still leads 7-5.

BOTTOM 3 - Walker begins the inning with a walk. Greiner pops out to right off of RHP Trey Pilkington. Payne lines out to center. Dantzler comes up and hits a rope that bounces just inside the first base bag. That thing was pretty darn close to foul, but Dantzler gets the benefit of the doubt. Moore misplays the ball off the wall in foul territory. That lets Walker come all the way around to score another run. Matthews pops out to the catcher to end the inning. Alabama leads 7-5

TOP 3 - Rosecrans strikes out swinging to begin the frame. Booth singles, but Roberts pops up behind the plate to Greiner for out number two. Tullidge hits a spinner over the head of Walker. It dribbles into shallow right. Matthews comes charging in after it and right before he gloves the ball, he slips and the ball goes underneath him. That allows the runner to go from third to home. E9. That's his first, but probably should be his second. Dugas lines out to left to end the inning. Alabama leads 7-4

BOTTOM 2 - Matthews digs in and lets loose on another first pitch. He absolutely crushes another, this one to LCF and over the corner of the bullpen for a solo home run. Put a severe hurting on that one. English follows him up with a triple to right center. He's 90 feet away from scoring. Vergason looks to be taking his base as he's hit on the first pitch of the AB. Blue calls him back saying he leaned in. I'm not so sure. Tanner doesn't think he did and puts up a pretty stern protest. He gets a good piece of one and flies it to the wall in RCF. It looked like it may carry out, but Moore makes a great leaping catch against the gate in the USC bullpen. It goes for a sac fly. Pankake goes down on strikes and Marzilli pops out to right - another great running catch by Moore. Alabama leads 6-4

TOP 2 - More scoring for the Tide and more poor defense for the Gamecocks. Tullidge singles to left to lead off the inning. Dugas hits a line drive towards the track in right. Matthews got a really bad break on the ball, but catches up to it and has it hit off his glove and fall. He may be a little woozy from that shot he took by the ball in the first inning. Montgomery isn't getting any help, but he's getting hit really hard, too. Infield drawn in, Gregory singles through a drawn in infield to bring home two runs. Marzilli's throw is late. Montgomery gets Reaves to pop out to second and Moore to K to end the inning. Alabama leads 6-2

BOTTOM 1 - Carolina gets on the board. LHP Guilbeau, another freshman, gets hit hard in the first. Pankake bounces out to short for the first out of the inning. Marzilli is hit by the first pitch to give USC its first runner of the game. Walker comes up and absolutely tattooes a home run just to the right of the bleachers in left and under the scoreboard. That's the farthest home run I've seen from Walker this year. Incredible shot to cut the lead in half. Greiner doubles down the left field line, then takes third on a ball in the dirt. Payne gets the start at DH today, but already doesn't have a good at-bat as he fails to get the run in from third with less than two outs. He grounds to third base, so Greiner has to hold. Unproductive out. Dantzler ahead of a changeup and grounds out to second base to end the inning. Alabama leads 4-2

TOP 1 - Jordan Montgomery taking the hill for the Gamecocks. Doesn't get any help from his teammates in the first inning. He gives up a leadoff, infield single to Dugas. Pankake made a nice effort on the play getting to the ball in front of and opposite the second base bag. Gregory hit a bouncer to short, but the only play that the Gamecocks can get is to force Dugas out at second. Reaves singled to center to put two on. Moore hit a bouncer towards the six-hole. Pankake picked the ball up cleanly going to his right, but mishandled the glove-hand exchange and dropped the ball. Everyone was safe. E6. A single to left brought home one run easily. English would have had a shot on the play at home, but he overran the baseball allowing the runner to score without a throw. No one advanced, so an error was not ruled. Rosencrans doubled to right field to bring home another run. The ball was hit high and to the track. Matthews misjudged it and it went off the wall and off the back of Matthews' head. It was a tough play, but it looked like he got turned around a bit. He gathered himself well enough to make the throw back in and keep Bama to only one run. With runners on second and third, the Tide got an RBI ground out by Booth. Roberts struck out to end the inning. Alabama leads 4-0

South Carolina

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

LHP Jordan Montgomery

Alabama

CF - Taylor Dugas
LF - Hunter Gregory
SS - Jared Reaves
RF - Ben Moore
1B - Austen Smith
DH - Josh Rosecrans
C - Brett Booth
2B - Kenny Roberts
3B - James Tullidge

LHP Taylor Guilbeau - 3-2, 38.2 IP, 39 H, 21 ER, 28 BB, 30 K, OBA .281

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