The difference in Thursday’s night’s ten inning, 8-7 win by Texas A&M over South Carolina was one fly ball to left that was brought back and a second one that was not.
In the top of the ninth of a 7-7 game, South Carolina shortstop Henry Kaczmar led off with a high fly to left that went over the fence, only to be caught and brought back into the field of play by Jamal George. In the bottom of the tenth, Caden Sorrell led off with a no-doubt homer to left off Brendan Sweeney to give the Aggies the walk-off victory.
In the end, it was that simple. One team got the bg home run and the other one didn’t. But there was a lot of stuff that led up to those defining moments.
The Gamecocks built an early 3-1 lead that included solo home runs by Beau Hollins and Ethan Petry. For Petry, it was the 54th homer of his career moving him to within eight of the program record.
The Aggies, however, wiped out that lead with five runs in the bottom of the inning including a grand slam by Blake Binderup to go up 6-3.
A&M led 7-5 going into the seventh inning, but the Gamecocks tied the game with runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Nathan Hall brought them within a run with a two-out solo homer in the seventh, and Jace Woita tied the game in the eighth with a two-out RBI single to left.
On the mound, Ashton Crowther gave a sterling effort to keep the Aggies off the scoreboard. He entered with two outs in the fifth and retired all seven batters he faced. Caleb Jones followed and pitched a perfect eighth inning.
After the long fly ball out to open the ninth, the Gamecocks still had a chance to take the lead. Hall singled and later went to third on an errant pickoff attempt. Petry, however, struck out, and after Jordan Carrion walked to put runners on the corners with two outs, Hollins struck out to end the threat.
Sweeney (0-3) pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth. Texas A&M reliever Weston Moss, who came on in the bottom of the seventh, struck out the side in the top of the tenth to set the stage for the game ending blast.
Jake McCoy started for USC and allowed six runs on four hits over three innings. He walked five and struck out three. The bullpen allowed two runs on two hits while striking out five and walking one.
The Gamecocks are now 20-15 overall and 2-11 in the SEC. Game two of the series will be Saturday night at 7:00 PM Eastern.