South Carolina baseball walks past Kentucky into SEC Tournament semifinals
HOOVER, Ala. — South Carolina baseball secured a place in the SEC Tournament semifinals Friday, in part by keeping the bat on its collective shoulder.
Five consecutive Gamecocks were walked or hit by a pitch in the fifth inning, forcing in a pair of decisive runs in a 6-5 victory over Kentucky at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. With the win over the third-seeded Wildcats, 10th-seeded South Carolina advances to play LSU on Saturday (1 p.m., SEC Network) for the right to take part in the SEC title game Sunday.
The patient Gamecocks worked 10 free passes on the afternoon — three of which belonged to slugging catcher Cole Messina, who the Wildcats elected to pitch around after he set an SEC Tournament RBI record with 14 in the first three games.
With Messina neutralized, South Carolina (36-22) found its power elsewhere.
Gavin Casas started South Carolina’s scoring with a three-run homer in the second. After Kentucky rallied to take the lead, Will Tippett’s fifth home run of the season knotted the game back up in the fifth before the walk parade put the Gamecocks ahead to stay.
That proved enough for the Gamecocks’ pitching staff.
Dylan Eskew and Tyler Dean pitched through some defensive miscues to keep South Carolina in the game early.
In the fourth, coach Mark Kingston handed the ball to freshman Parker Marlatt, who delivered the most notable outing of his young career. Pitching a career-high 3⅔ innings, Marlatt kept the Wildcats (40-14) quiet, holding them to one run on two hits and striking out six without issuing a walk.
When Marlatt ran into trouble in the eighth, Matthew Becker took the mound and escaped the mess by inducing a line-drive double play. He then pitched a clean ninth to close it out.
South Carolina baseball overcomes early defensive mistakes
Though the result differed from Thursday night, when four South Carolina errors opened the door for a comeback LSU victory, the Gamecocks failed to address their defensive issues.
An error by Parker Noland and a bunt that the Gamecocks misplayed into a hit opened the door for a two-run second inning for Kentucky.
The Wildcats followed with two more unearned runs in the fourth, when South Carolina failed to touch second base when attempting to turn a double play. Casas' error on a grounder to third base marked the third on the day for Kingston's club.
The self-sabotage sent the Gamecocks into a 4-3 hole as the game reached the middle innings that they managed to climb out of.
Now with 12 errors in the tournament, South Carolina is two shy of the all-time record set by Kentucky in the 1995 SEC Tournament.
UPDATES: South Carolina baseball live score updates vs Kentucky in SEC Tournament elimination game
Gavin Casas leaves game with injury for South Carolina baseball
It wasn’t all good news for the Gamecocks.
Casas, one of the Gamecocks’ regulars, departed in the middle of a fifth-inning at-bat, with Kingston sending Talmadge LeCroy to third base in his place.
The SEC Network reported that he suffered an injury to his hamate bone, though Kingston said postgame that the injury required further examination from team doctors. Should he be unavailable for the NCAA Tournament next week, it would prove a noteworthy loss. Casas is hitting .260 with 10 home runs and 35 RBIs.
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: South Carolina baseball walks by Kentucky to SEC Tournament semifinals
