Freshman Skye Bolt singled home the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give No. 1 North Carolina a 6-5 victory over South Carolina in a see-saw Super Regional opener in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Bolt recorded his game-winning hit off of All-American reliever Tyler Webb – who was chosen in the tenth round of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft by the New York Yankees on Friday. Entering the game Webb had not allowed a run in 25 of 30 relief appearances and was sporting a minuscule earned run average of 1.36.
Webb just didn’t have it against the Tar Heels (56-9), though, who came back from a two-run deficit twice in this game to push South Carolina to the brink of elimination.
Head coach Chad Holbrook’s Gamecocks (42-19) raced to a 4-2 lead against heralded North Carolina starter Kent Emanuel, a third round draft pick who lasted just 2.1 innings. USC’s early barrage was punctuated by sophomore shortstop Joey Pankake, who took Emanuel deep to left field at Boshamer Stadium – clearly not only the wall but a building behind it.
South Carolina couldn’t hold the lead though, stranding a dozen runners and committing three critical two-out errors to help keep North Carolina in the game.
Eventually, the top-seeded Heels took advantage of those Gamecock miscues – manufacturing a ninth-inning run with a leadoff single, sacrifice bunt and Bolt’s two-out single to right field (all off of Webb).
Game two of the series will be held on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EDT with ESPN providing national coverage. Sophomore southpaw Jordan Montgomery (5-1, 1.67 ERA) will start for USC while left-hander Hobbs Johnson (4-0, 2.09) will get the ball for the Tar Heels.
If South Carolina is able to even the series, a deciding third game would be held on Monday … with the winner of that contest advancing to Omaha.
The Gamecocks have advanced to each of the last three College World Series finals – defeating UCLA and Florida in 2010 and 2011, respectively, to capture the school’s first-ever national championships in a major sport. Last year USC came up short against Arizona in its effort to pull off the three-peat.
***
5 comments
I love the Gamecocks. That said, Though our bats were mighty, we fumbled and stumbled when we should have been playing heads-up defense. The Heels were PLACING hits, too.
And let’s face it. We have two great pitchers, two good pitchers and several other really nice young men who pitch.
I love the Gamecocks. That said, Though our bats were mighty, we fumbled and stumbled when we should have been playing heads-up defense. The Heels were PLACING hits, too.
And let’s face it. We have two great pitchers, two good pitchers and several other really nice young men who pitch.
Pfffffffffffffffffft
Pfffffffffffffffffft
SC up 8-0 in Game 2 in the 8th. FITS, and the rest of his idiot Clemson and liberal worhipers, will have CRAP all over their faces if SC does not give away another game to un-Carolina…
Love to see FITS choke on the gaspipe if SC can come back in the series…A lot of Dumb@$$#$ (see FITS) gave SC up for dead…and never even acknowleged Clemson’s collapse in the Regional…