Box Score

* * *

Facing elimination against a team that hadn’t lost two in a row all season, South Carolina didn’t allow any drama to enter the equation.

The Gamecocks jumped on Arizona State starter Merrill Kelly for eight runs in the second inning, led 10-0 after three and cruised to an 11-4 victory Tuesday in a Bracket Two elimination game before a sweltering 19,936 fans at Rosenblatt Stadium.

“Obviously you can’t have a start like we did against a quality team like South Carolina,” Arizona State coach Tim Esmay said.
“I thought they did a heck of a job putting us on our heels, and I think you have to do that in a game like this where you lose and you go home.”

Scott Wingo sliced a two-run double into the left-field corner to open the floodgates in the second inning.

A three-run homer to left-center by Jackie Bradley Jr. made it 6-0, and Adrian Morales clanged the left-field foul pole for a two-run shot and an 8-0 lead.

South Carolina’s eight second-inning hits were a season high.

“We don’t score runs like that very often,” South Carolina coach Ray Tanner said. “But we had some big, big at-bats in that inning, and it gave us an opportunity against a great club.”

Bradley’s homer was his 13th of the season and second in two games at the College World Series. The sophomore center fielder is 5 for 8 with six RBIs in Omaha.

“He made a great pitch, low and outside,” Bradley said. “I just happened to stay back on it, put a good swing on it, and it was wind-assisted a little bit.”

South Carolina (49-16) plays the loser of the delayed game between Oklahoma and Clemson in a Bracket Two elimination game at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Arizona State (52-10), the national No. 1 seed, was eliminated, only the third time in 22 trips to the CWS that the Sun Devils have gone 0-2. Of the eight national seeds, only No. 6 UCLA, unbeaten in Bracket One, is still playing.

“Down eight runs, it’s tough,” Sun Devil right fielder Kole Calhoun said.

“It will get to you. It makes you think. Our mind-set was just trying to chip away, not chasing the scoreboard or anything like that. But an eight-run deficit is hard to overcome, especially against a quality team like South Carolina.”

The Gamecocks themselves have had only three two-game losing strings all season and showed no desire to have a fourth.
South Carolina starter Sam Dyson (6-5), Toronto’s fourth-round draft pick, pitched 7 1⁄3 solid innings, allowing two runs before reliever Matt Price allowed two runners inherited from Dyson to score.

“You just try to keep your focus and continue to go out there and pitch well,” Dyson said of pitching with a big cushion. “Every team here is capable of scoring that many runs in an inning.”
Arizona State had one last push in the eighth, scoring two runs and loading the bases with one out. But Price settled in and struck out both Austin Barnes and Drew Maggi, coming back from 3-0 to get Maggi, to keep it 10-4.

“If you look at (Dyson’s) linescore, it’s impressive,” Tanner said. “He only had (three) strikeouts, but against a lot of teams, he would have had eight or nine strikeouts, maybe even 10. That’s how good that team is. He pitched really, really well, and they kept fighting back.”

Dyson beat the heat, too. On a sticky day where the heat index inched past 100 degrees, home-plate umpire David Savage, overcome by the heat, wasn’t able to finish.

“Talk about grinding one out,” Esmay said of Dyson. “I felt like we had opportunities every inning. I didn’t feel like he really breezed through any inning. But you look up and 100-and-some pitches later, he’s battling and making pitches. That’s a performance I’m sure they’re proud of, because he was a warrior out there.”

Kelly (10-3) gave up a season-high eight runs in a season-low 12⁄3 innings. Bradley’s blast was the biggest, even if he did downplay it.

“He’s a little bit humble,” Tanner said. “That ball he hit to left-center, maybe the wind took it a few rows up, but he hit that ball hard, and it was a pretty good pitch away.”

Contact the writer:

444-1027, rob.white@owh.com

« Sports - College World Series

Share