It was like the old days at Riley Park on Wednesday night.
A crowd exhausted by the COVID guidelines of nearly 1,500 spectators filled the seats to watch a baseball game, with South Carolina in 10th place bringing its undefeated team to Charleston to play The Citadel.
The Bulldogs gave the fans a show, employing an unusual pitch strategy and a healthy offensive attack to lead the Gamecocks through a race with only four outs to finish.
But that was when the USC bats finally opened, racking up six runs in five strokes on the eighth for an 11-7 win to keep the perfect Gamecocks record at 11-0 going into a great weekend series in 20th place in Texas .
Braylen Wimmer’s RBI doubled in the left corner of the field, putting USC ahead to stay 7-6, after Brady Allen tied a single in the middle to tie the game against Bulldog closer to Gant Starling.
Citadel midfielder Jeffrey Brown scored 5 to 5 with his first home run of his career and a triple, and Cole Simpson hit a two-race home run in the sixth. But the Bulldogs dropped to 4-7 this season, despite collecting 13 hits, the maximum allowed by the USC this season.
Bulldog coach Tony Skole opted for a one-pitch strategy per entry, and it worked well enough to keep the powerful Gamecocks, reaching 0.317 as a team, for just three hits in seven entries. This was made up for by 10 hikes and a crucial mistake that led to four undeserved Gamecock races on Friday.
With two in front and one out in eighth, nearest Citadel Gant Starling ran from the bullpen to try to preserve a 6-5 lead. He hit one, but the only one in the middle of Allen equalized the score, and Wimmer started the race with a double in the left corner of the field.
Josiah Sightler, who started the game on the hill for the USC and beat himself, made a two-race double for a 9-6 lead. And when Citadel left field player Ryan McCarthy failed to hit Andrew Eyster’s hit against the wall, the two-race double opened at 11-6.
Simpson placed the Bulldogs ahead 6-5 in sixth place, smashing a two-run home run undoubtedly over the wall in the right field against US appeaser Wesley Sweatt.
Citadel holder Devin Beckley kicked off the game forcefully by eliminating hitter Wes Clarke from the USC on a swift ball to remove the Gamecocks in order.
The Bulldogs put together three direct strokes to start at the bottom of the first, with a single Brown inner court and a sharp double to Tyler Corbitt’s left. Crosby Jones’ single for the center scored Brown, and Corbitt returned home with a double game ball to a 2-0 lead after one.
Citadel’s second pitcher, Jake Pilarski, hit two in the second, but Lathan Todd had problems in the third.
With bases loaded and two eliminated, Todd had Clarke land a shortstop grounder. But Brooks O’Brien was unable to cope with the jump, and the error allowed a race to score. Sightler followed with a double run and a 3-2 USC lead. The Gamecocks added another race in a wild field, scoring four races not acquired on the board in two hits, two hikes, one mistake and one wild step.
Brown led the third with a triple on the right field line and scored on a Corbitt grounder to reduce the lead to 4-3.
USC joined in a single room race, a walk, a sacrificial race and an Allen fly. The Bulldogs had one back at the bottom of the frame in McCarthy’s double-out double and a short-hop and RBI single from Travis Lott to make it 5-4.
Talk to Jeff Hartsell at 843-937-5596. Follow on Twitter @Jeff_fromthePC