Messina delivers more heroics, but LSU rallies to edge South Carolina at SEC Tournament
The night should have belonged to Cole Messina.
In the first three games of this SEC Tournament, the South Carolina catcher has put together one of the most Herculean stretches conceivable by a baseball player. Through three games, Messina already owns the SEC Tournament RBI record with 14 runs batted in.
On Thursday, he sent a grand slam to the moon in the third inning. Then, again with the bases loaded in the sixth inning, Messina lined a go-ahead single into center.
It wasn’t enough in South Carolina’s 11-10 loss to LSU.
With every Messina moment came a Tiger answer.
All night, the Tigers felt inevitable. Messina could only do so much.
Within minutes of Messina’s grand slam, LSU pieced together a few hits then tied the game on a Jake Brown home run. So when Messina gave South Carolina the lead with his clutch single in the sixth, it was hard not to count the outs.
South Carolina came into Thursday night with few options with its pitching staff. It had exhausted all of its best arms to win the first two games, which meant the Gamecocks had to face LSU in a bullpen game without their best bullpen arms.
Tyler Pitzer allowed two earned runs. Jake McCoy gave up two home runs. Michael Polk gave up more hits (3) than he recorded outs (2). Connor McCreery was the best arm of the night for USC, giving up no earned runs in almost three innings.
Then came the shocker. Just two days after throwing 67 pitches against Alabama, Chris Veach ran out of the bullpen in the eighth inning. Two runs quickly scored on a Gavin Casas error, but Veach exited the frame with the lead still intact.
An inning later, though, the veteran South Carolina righty gave up two quick singles. A few batters later, Michael Braswell III — the former South Carolina shortstop — became the hero, lining an RBI-single into left field to give LSU the lead.
