In photos: South Carolina celebrates regional win
South Carolina is off to a Super Regional for the first time since 2018.
The Gamecocks finished off the Columbia regional with a dominating 16-7 win over Campbell Sunday night.
And postgame, the celebration ensued. GamecockCentral’s Brodie Perry was on hand to photograph it.
Check out his celebration gallery here.
Gamecocks club Campbell, advance in NCAA Tournament
by Collyn Taylor
When South Carolina popped up as a host team for the NCAA Tournament, there were plenty of people clamoring for the Gamecocks to instead travel for the postseason and for Campbell, instead, to host.
The two teams finally squared off in a much-anticipated regional final. And the Gamecocks left no doubt who the best team in the regional was with a commanding 16-7 win to advance to the Super Regional round.
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It’s South Carolina’s second Super Regional appearance under Mark Kingston and first since 2018, his first year with the program.
The Gamecocks will now play either Florida or Texas Tech in a Super Regional starting next weekend. If Florida wins the Gainesville regional, South Carolina travels to the Gators.
If the Red Raiders come out of it, there will be more postseason baseball in Columbia.
After doing it with pitching and defense Saturday, the Gamecocks clubbed the Campbell pitching staff. They showcased an offense that looked like one of the best in the country.
After being held scoreless in the first inning, South Carolina scored in four straight frames. That included exploding for seven runs in the third inning.
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The Gamecocks put seven runs and saw just 12 pitches in the process, finding a ton of different ways to push across runs Sunday night.
South Carolina took advantage of 10 Campbell walks and hit batters plus four errors to aid what was already a scorching hot offense. The big third inning started with an Ethan Petry single. Then South Carolina got three consecutive hits from Cole Messina, Talmadge LeCroy and Gavin Casas.
Will McGillis put the exclamation point on the inning. He lasered a two-run homer to left field, slamming his bat on the ground and skip-hopping to first base in celebration.
Messina and LeCroy combined to go 5-for-10 on the day while driving in five runs and scoring five times.
A South Carolina offense that mustered just 33 runs over the 10 games leading up to the NCAA Tournament exploded for 41 runs in three games to advance to a Super.
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After starter Matthew Becker gave up five runs over three-plus innings–all on homers from Logan Jordan–the South Carolina bullpen settled things down.
Nick Proctor came in with a man on and no one out and got out of the jam in just six pitches. He got a swinging strikeout and a double play. He finished giving up two runs on five hits over three innings while striking out three in the process.
Will Sanders looked as dominant as ever in two innings of work. He would come in to face the heart of Campbell’s order and strike out the side–all swinging–on 11 pitches.
He would pitch around a leadoff single and walk in the eighth thanks to a big double play. Will Tippett made the swing play, gunning out a tagging runner at second on a fly-out.
The inning ended after that with a swinging strikeout.
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