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After a season full of lackluster offensive performances, South Carolina picked a pretty good weekend to score a ton of runs. After Saturday's heartbreaking loss in the ninth inning, the Gamecocks absolutely needed to win the rubber match to keep their slim postseason hopes alive. A little bit surprisingly, they did.
South Carolina took a three-run lead in the first inning, after Gene Cone singled, Max Schrock reached first thanks to an error, and Kyle Martin homered (he's so good).
Texas A&M got their first run in the third inning when Blake Allemand went yard. The Aggies added another run in the next inning, this time on an RBI groundout by Logan Nottebrok.
The Gamecocks broke things open in the fifth inning, scoring four runs. Schrock started things off with a double, then scored on a Kyle Martin RBI single. Elliott Caldwell brought Martin home with an RBI base hit of his own, and he later scored on a wild pitch. Marcus Mooney got Hunter Taylor across the plate with a two-out RBI double, making the score 7-2.
A Caldwell sac fly scored Gene Cone in the next inning, giving South Carolina even more insurance. Then things went downhill.
After DC Arendas made a tremendous play early in the bottom of the sixth, Nottebrok homered for three runs, and Jonathan Moroney followed with a solo shot to make it an 8-6 game. Nick Choruby contributed an RBI groundout in the eighth inning to pull Texas A&M within one run, but that was - fortunately - their final run of the game.
Starter Matthew Vogel did fairly well, but left in the bottom of the fourth due to what appeared to be some sort of injury. Josh Reagan and Brandon Murray also pitched for the Gamecocks in this game.
With the win, South Carolina improves to 30-22 overall and 12-15 in the SEC. Texas A&M drops to 42-9 overall and 17-9 in conference play. The Gamecocks will be back in action when they host USC Upstate on Tuesday in the final midweek game of the regular season. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Carolina Stadium.