South Carolina center fielder Tanner English plated the go-ahead run with a one-out triple in the top of the ninth inning to send the Gamecocks (32-12, 12-8 Southeastern Conference) to a 4-2 victory against LSU in Alex Box Stadium on Saturday.
After Gamecock catcher Greyson Greiner reached on Tiger shortstop Alex Bregman’s second error of the evening to begin the ninth, Connor Bright failed to lay down a sacrifice bunt, striking out after he popped all three attempts foul.
In stepped English, originally slated to try and rectify Bright’s mistake and lay down a bunt of his own.
But with the left side wide open against Tiger senior reliever Chris Cotton, Gamecock coach Chad Holbrook had a gut feeling, and took the bunt off in the middle of the at-bat.
“That’s why he’s a good head coach,” English said. “I got a good pitch to hit and put it where they weren’t. It worked out.”
English would score the fourth and final Gamecock run during the next at-bat after home plate umpire Fred Cannon called Cotton for a balk, drawing the ire of LSU head coach Paul Mainieri, who was ejected for only the second time in his seven-year career at LSU.
“[Cannon] said [Cotton] didn’t come to a set,” Mainieri said. “I don’t really see where there was a need to call it. Usually balks are called if a pitcher is trying to deceive a runner from trying to steal a base.”
The evening began much like it ended for the Tigers (39-5, 16-4 SEC) who fell behind 2-0 before ever stepping to the plate thanks to RBI singles from Gamecock first baseman L.B. Dantzler and designated hitter Brison Celek off Tiger starter Ryan Eades.
The RBIs came after Bregman bobbled leadoff hitter Graham Saiko’s grounder to open the ballgame and Chase Vergason followed with a bloop single to start the trouble for Eades.
“Bregman’s going to make 99.9 percent of those plays,” Eades said. “I left the ball up to Dantzler and he got the hit … but I was able to shake it off and kind of settle in.”
Eades rebounded to throw seven strong innings, surrendering only six hits and the two unearned runs in the first.
The Tigers put the leadoff runner on in eight of nine innings and banged out 14 hits, 10 against Gamecock starter Jordan Montgomery, but only had the two runs to show for it as they left 10 runners on base on the night.
After senior outfielder Raph Rhymes led the second off with a stand-up double, junior catcher Ty Ross chased him home on a high sacrifice fly to center, bringing the Tigers to within 2-1.
Rhymes and Ross teamed again in the sixth as Rhymes launched another double to lead off the frame before being driven in by Ross with an RBI groundout to knot the score at two and inject life into the 10,246 crammed into Alex Box Stadium.
That would be all the Tigers could muster against Montgomery and southpaws Adam Westmoreland and Tyler Webb out of the Gamecock bullpen, who combined to pitch out of countless jams while keeping the Tigers guessing.
“[Montgomery] was keeping everyone off balance and throwing all three pitches for strikes,” Rhymes said. “That’s just kind of baseball. I think we had good at-bats all night, we just didn’t come through when we needed to.”
Sans Mainieri in the bottom of the ninth, the Tigers again threatened after junior second baseman JaCoby Jones’ leadoff double and sophomore right fielder Jared Foster’s infield single put runners on first and second against Webb.
But, as was the theme all night, Webb wiggled out of trouble, striking out both junior designated hitter Sean McMullen and freshman center fielder Mark Laird to bring up Bregman.
Bregman tattooed Webb’s first offering to the left-center field gap, but not hard enough to evade English, who made the catch to even the series at one game apiece.
“It was the hardest ball I hit all night,” Bregman said. “Just to the wrong part of the park.”
