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After the Gamecocks squeaked past the Tigers with a 2-0 shutout on Friday night, they trailed by the same score early on Saturday afternoon, thanks to a first-inning two-run homer from Seth Beer. Fortunately, the shut out ended in the bottom of the inning, when Justin Row tripled with one out, then later came home on an RBI single from Jonah Bride to make it 2-1.
That score held until the fourth inning, when South Carolina tied things up. Alex Destino led off with a single, Madison Stokes got to first on catcher’s interference, and with one out, Danny Blair singled to load the bases. The Gamecocks only managed to bring Destino home, though, on a sac fly by TJ Hopkins.
South Carolina took the lead in the next inning, after Jacob Olson tripled with one out and Jonah Bride followed with a homer to make it 4-2 Gamecocks. They tacked on another run in the next inning, as Hunter Taylor led off with a double and scored thanks to a Clemson error on a ball hit by Blair.
Unfortunately, the Tigers had to make things interesting by scoring two runs in the seventh inning and one in the eighth to tie the game at 5-5. To make matters worse, they scored three more runs in the ninth. South Carolina was only able to muster two runs in the bottom of the inning, thanks partly to more Clemson errors. Hopkins walked to start things off, Matt Williams also got on base, and Olson doubled to make it 8-6. The final run came on a Tigers error on a ball hit by Bride.
Starter Wil Crowe got off to a bit of a rocky start, but found his groove and settled down quickly. He worked into the seventh inning before being replaced by Colie Bowers. Tyler Johnson and Reed Scott also pitched, but neither of them had their best stuff, and Johnson also appeared to get hurt.
With the loss, South Carolina drops to 6-4, while Clemson is now 7-3. They’ll meet on Sunday for the rubber game, with first pitch set for 1:30 p.m. at Founders Park. Adam Hill will start on the mound for the Gamecocks.