Live updates/game thread: South Carolina vs. LSU (SEC Tournament semifinals)
South Carolina will get its rematch with LSU this afternoon for a chance to go play for an SEC Championship.
First pitch is at 1 p.m. on SEC Network. Roman Kimball (2-2, 5.86 ERA) gets the start on the mound.
GamecockCentral is back here at Hoover Met to provide live updates throughout the afternoon.
Follow along for updates
Jack’s takes from South Carolina’s win over Kentucky to set up huge rematch
By: Jack Veltri
It was never going to be easy. After blowing a late lead against LSU on Thursday, South Carolina had its backs up against the wall. If it wanted a shot at winning the SEC title, it would have to win three games in the next three days.
But give credit where it’s due, this team doesn’t quit and continues the fight. Less than 24 hours after the tough loss, the Gamecocks earned a 6-5 win over Kentucky to set up a rematch with LSU on Saturday in the SEC Tournament semifinals.
Here are my takes from the win.
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This team has a lot of heart
It was only a week ago South Carolina was going through its worst stretch of the season. The Gamecocks lost their final six games of the year to Georgia and Tennessee and looked dead in the water. But once they arrived in Hoover, things have seemingly clicked.
In these last four games, they’ve played arguably some of their best baseball. Sure, they’ve made a ton of errors in the field. But they’ve been able to overcome those mistakes in most cases.
And against Kentucky, they didn’t win in the prettiest fashion. In fact, they would score the eventual winning run on a hit by pitch with the bases loaded. So that should tell you all you need to know.
But regardless of how the rest of this week goes, this tournament run has been a huge success. South Carolina definitely has its swagger back and proven it can go out there and still beat some of the best competition in this conference day in and day out.
Bullpen was outstanding
At this rate, South Carolina doesn’t have a ton of options left from its pitching staff. Heading into Friday, Mark Kingston was going to have to call on some of his lesser used arms in order to get outs.
Had it not been for some defensive mistakes in the field, this game might not have been super close. Because the bullpen had an incredible outing to lead the Gamecocks to victory.
Dylan Eskew, Tyler Dean, Parker Marlatt and Matthew Becker combined to get all 27 outs and only gave up two earned runs in the win. Marlatt was easily the most impactful, tossing 3.2 innings of one-run ball. He struck out six without a walk and threw a career-high 57 pitches.
It’s outings like these that give South Carolina a chance. It was only a week ago that Marlatt gave up a huge grand slam to Tennessee to take the air out of the balloon last Friday. But he bounced back in a big way and delivered.
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The rematch everybody wanted
After watching on as former Gamecock Michael Braswell delivered the game-winning hit against his old team, South Carolina will have a shot to get the last laugh on Saturday. The Gamecocks will face LSU for the second time in three days with a trip to the championship game on the line.
I think the team and most certainly the fans wanted to see this. After all, that was easily the best game of this tournament when these two teams faced off. The stakes will definitely be high on both sides.
I’m still of the opinion that if South Carolina doesn’t make four errors on Thursday, it holds on to pick up a massive win. But instead, the Gamecocks are 1/3 of the way towards winning the tournament title.
It’s going to be tough to beat this team, especially since the Tigers now have an extra day of rest. But if the pitching can continue to get big outs from unlikely heroes and the offense keeps raking, there’s definitely a good chance they can win this game.
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