South Carolina battles back, but Aggies get last laugh with walk-off finish

Texas A&M loves to yell. No, not cheer — yell. Whenever it gets the opportunity, Aggie fans will do so, and it’s not just limited to the 100,000-plus that show up to Kyle Field on Saturdays in the fall.

While the baseball stadium right next door, Blue Bell Park, only holds 6,100, it still gets loud like it does for football. There aren’t yell leaders. But these fans are loud and will let you hear it from start to finish.

When South Carolina fell behind in the early innings on Thursday, the crowd let it be known. After a night full of yells, the Gamecocks nearly got the last laugh. But the Aggies, who blew a late lead, walked it off in the bottom of the 10th to pick up an 8-7 win in the series opener.

After a rough start from Jake McCoy, in which he gave up six runs in three innings with seven free passes, South Carolina (21-14, 3-10 SEC) had its work cut out to climb back into the game. Fortunately, the offense had already gotten off to a good start with solo home runs by Beau Hollins and Ethan Petry.

Trailing by as many as three runs, the Gamecocks kept battling and brought home two more runs in the fifth to make it a one-run game. Cayden Gaskin, who led off the frame with a single, scored from third on an error. Jordan Carrion closed the gap further with a sacrifice fly.

After Binderup, who came into Thursday only hitting .143, picked up his fifth RBI of the night with a run-scoring double in the fifth, the Gamecocks got back to being within a run after Nathan Hall homered in the seventh.

All six of those runs came against Aggies left-hander Ryan Prager, who still managed to pitch into the seventh with 93 pitches. Prager struck out eight without a walk over 6.2 innings of work, but he also gave up five earned runs, three of which came from home runs.

With the Aggies turning to their bullpen, South Carolina tied the game in the eighth with an RBI single off the bat of pinch-hitter Jase Woita. A main reason for the comeback efforts didn’t solely boil down to timely hitting, but the bullpen posting zeroes in the later innings as well.

Once McCoy exited in the fourth, the Gamecocks only gave up two more runs the rest of the way. Parker Marlatt allowed one of those runs in 1.2 innings of relief. After that, Ashton Crowther retired all seven batters he faced, while Caleb Jones and Brendan Sweeney each fired scoreless innings.

South Carolina had a great chance to take the lead in the next inning when Hall went first to third on an errant pickoff throw that went down the right field line. But he was left stranded as Petry and Hollins, who had homered earlier, each struck out in critical situations.

Then in the bottom of the tenth, Sweeney gave up a walk-off solo shot Caden Sorrell to give the Aggies the win.

Up next: South Carolina will look to even the series up in the middle game of the series on Friday. First pitch is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network Plus. Matthew Becker (2-2, 6.19 ERA) will get the start on the mound.

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