Link for video: http://southcarolina.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1378256
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Sunday
Game 1 - Arizona (H) vs. South Carolina, 8 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Monday
Game 2 - Arizona vs. South Carolina (H), 8 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Tuesday
Game 3 - Arizona vs. South Carolina (H) (if necessary), 8 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
OMAHA, Neb. - Six weeks ago, Ray Tanner shook his head and said, "I don't think we got the bullets this year."
For one of the only times in three years, Tanner was completely wrong.
Seventh-ranked South Carolina is back, for a third straight year, in the national championship series. The Gamecocks did it the hard way, having to win three games in around 36 hours, but did it one more time. With a roster stocked with freshmen and newcomers, from the wreckage of a 1-5 start in SEC play, the Gamecocks once again got to the College World Series, and once again will play for the game's ultimate prize.
"It's kind of hard to explain, because there are so many good baseball teams that we play throughout the year," Tanner said, after a heart-stopping 3-2 win over Arkansas on Friday. "Very rarely do we think we're better than the other team. You dwell on that, it's just too hard.
"These guys just keep grinding. They deserve all the credit."
Only three teams in history have ever played in three straight CWS finals, the last being Texas from 1983-85. Only one other team, Southern Cal from 1970-74, ever won three or more consecutive national championships, which is the mission facing the Gamecocks (49-18) beginning at 8 p.m. on Sunday against Arizona.
It wasn't that long ago that South Carolina had an athletic program that seemed destined to be the nation's pesky kid brother forever, the scrappy little guy that could sometimes get close but never win it. The Gamecocks' baseball team is now only two wins away from becoming a dynasty.
They've done it in strange ways, phenomenal ways, ways that have seemed pre-destined. Tanner was at a loss on how to explain it - the 30-2 postseason record over the past three years, his personal 15-2 record in CWS elimination games, how the one bounce always seems to have a garnet tinge to it - but was certainly enjoying it.
"Baseball is a game that sets you back. It will humble you. It will devastate you," Tanner said. "It will crush you if you allow it to. Yeah, you have to have some good fortune, and a little luck, and we've been a part of that."
On Friday, it was the one swing that Adam Matthews didn't take that turned the game USC's way.
The senior right fielder had already stranded five runners by himself, by grounding into one bases-loaded double play and striking out during the other. When he stepped to the plate in the seventh inning, the score tied at 2 and each team already on their closing pitchers, he knew it was now or never.
"Honestly, I better do something, or I'm never going to be able to live in Columbia again," Matthews said of his plate approach. "I left a small village on the bases out here in Omaha. He threw me a good slider that I held off of and fortunately I walked."
Barrett Astin's payoff pitch was low and Matthews trotted to first base as Joey Pankake came home. It was the second bases-loaded walk for USC of the game, and was just enough to overcome the stubborn Razorbacks (46-22).
Matt Price became the winningest pitcher in CWS history (five wins) by hurling the final three innings, striking out five and ceding just one hit. When Jake Wise swung through a 2-2 pitch, Price quickly pumped his fist and waited for the celebration - after so many over the years, he's become an expert on how to handle it.
Thought to have finally been solved after a second-game loss in the CWS to the same Arkansas team, USC battled through a rain-out and then having to win two games on Thursday, the first team to win two nine-inning games in a day since Holy Cross in 1952. Then came Friday, battling Razorbacks starter D.J. Baxendale, with its pitching in tatters and having to start Colby Holmes, who Arkansas had beaten on June 18.
As it did against Holmes in the first matchup, Arkansas scored early. Tim Carver singled on the first pitch and moved to second on Jacob Mahan's sacrifice bunt, before Matt Reynolds lashed a full-count RBI single to left to score him.
USC then had a chance to hurt Baxendale early, but blew an opportunity on Matthews' double-play ball.
The Razorbacks chased Holmes in the third when he hit his first batter and gave up a double to the second, a line drive that glanced off the glove of a diving Evan Marzilli. Tyler Webb, who threw 78 pitches in the loss to Arkansas on June 18, gave up one run on a fly ball to deep right that Matthews made a sliding catch on, but otherwise got out of the frame unscathed.
USC scored in the fifth when Pankake delivered a long-awaited hit to score Tanner English, and the Gamecocks then loaded the bases with one out for Christian Walker. He held off on a payoff pitch to force in a run, tying the game, and Arkansas went to the bullpen.
After USC squandered some more opportunities, Matthews held off on the one ball that he needed to. The winning run trotted home, and USC turned the game over to Price.
The redshirt junior did what he does, working around a two-out single in the eighth before facing the bottom of the Hogs' order in the ninth. He struck out two of his final three, making it four of his final seven, and was once again swallowed by his teammates.
"Speechless," Price said, when aware of his record. "I know how many great pitchers have been through the College World Series. Even though I've been coming out of the bullpen, probably vulturing some wins, you could say, giving my team a chance to win is what matters most."
Webb was again magnificent in relief after Holmes, and Pankake drove in the Gamecocks' first run with a fifth-inning RBI single. All that was left was to wait for the final strike - one more time, USC got it, and one more time, USC was headed to the championship series.
"That game could have gone either way," Tanner said. "We felt we had to hold them to three our four runs max to give them a chance to win. We just kept grinding it out. We caught a break there with the walk."
Now comes what everyone discussed sort-of in jest before the season, and was only thought of as the Gamecocks were slow out of the gate.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Sunday
Game 1 - Arizona (H) vs. South Carolina, 8 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Monday
Game 2 - Arizona vs. South Carolina (H), 8 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Tuesday
Game 3 - Arizona vs. South Carolina (H) (if necessary), 8 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
OMAHA, Neb. - Six weeks ago, Ray Tanner shook his head and said, "I don't think we got the bullets this year."
For one of the only times in three years, Tanner was completely wrong.
Seventh-ranked South Carolina is back, for a third straight year, in the national championship series. The Gamecocks did it the hard way, having to win three games in around 36 hours, but did it one more time. With a roster stocked with freshmen and newcomers, from the wreckage of a 1-5 start in SEC play, the Gamecocks once again got to the College World Series, and once again will play for the game's ultimate prize.
"It's kind of hard to explain, because there are so many good baseball teams that we play throughout the year," Tanner said, after a heart-stopping 3-2 win over Arkansas on Friday. "Very rarely do we think we're better than the other team. You dwell on that, it's just too hard.
"These guys just keep grinding. They deserve all the credit."
Only three teams in history have ever played in three straight CWS finals, the last being Texas from 1983-85. Only one other team, Southern Cal from 1970-74, ever won three or more consecutive national championships, which is the mission facing the Gamecocks (49-18) beginning at 8 p.m. on Sunday against Arizona.
It wasn't that long ago that South Carolina had an athletic program that seemed destined to be the nation's pesky kid brother forever, the scrappy little guy that could sometimes get close but never win it. The Gamecocks' baseball team is now only two wins away from becoming a dynasty.
They've done it in strange ways, phenomenal ways, ways that have seemed pre-destined. Tanner was at a loss on how to explain it - the 30-2 postseason record over the past three years, his personal 15-2 record in CWS elimination games, how the one bounce always seems to have a garnet tinge to it - but was certainly enjoying it.
"Baseball is a game that sets you back. It will humble you. It will devastate you," Tanner said. "It will crush you if you allow it to. Yeah, you have to have some good fortune, and a little luck, and we've been a part of that."
On Friday, it was the one swing that Adam Matthews didn't take that turned the game USC's way.
The senior right fielder had already stranded five runners by himself, by grounding into one bases-loaded double play and striking out during the other. When he stepped to the plate in the seventh inning, the score tied at 2 and each team already on their closing pitchers, he knew it was now or never.
"Honestly, I better do something, or I'm never going to be able to live in Columbia again," Matthews said of his plate approach. "I left a small village on the bases out here in Omaha. He threw me a good slider that I held off of and fortunately I walked."
Barrett Astin's payoff pitch was low and Matthews trotted to first base as Joey Pankake came home. It was the second bases-loaded walk for USC of the game, and was just enough to overcome the stubborn Razorbacks (46-22).
Matt Price became the winningest pitcher in CWS history (five wins) by hurling the final three innings, striking out five and ceding just one hit. When Jake Wise swung through a 2-2 pitch, Price quickly pumped his fist and waited for the celebration - after so many over the years, he's become an expert on how to handle it.
Thought to have finally been solved after a second-game loss in the CWS to the same Arkansas team, USC battled through a rain-out and then having to win two games on Thursday, the first team to win two nine-inning games in a day since Holy Cross in 1952. Then came Friday, battling Razorbacks starter D.J. Baxendale, with its pitching in tatters and having to start Colby Holmes, who Arkansas had beaten on June 18.
As it did against Holmes in the first matchup, Arkansas scored early. Tim Carver singled on the first pitch and moved to second on Jacob Mahan's sacrifice bunt, before Matt Reynolds lashed a full-count RBI single to left to score him.
USC then had a chance to hurt Baxendale early, but blew an opportunity on Matthews' double-play ball.
The Razorbacks chased Holmes in the third when he hit his first batter and gave up a double to the second, a line drive that glanced off the glove of a diving Evan Marzilli. Tyler Webb, who threw 78 pitches in the loss to Arkansas on June 18, gave up one run on a fly ball to deep right that Matthews made a sliding catch on, but otherwise got out of the frame unscathed.
USC scored in the fifth when Pankake delivered a long-awaited hit to score Tanner English, and the Gamecocks then loaded the bases with one out for Christian Walker. He held off on a payoff pitch to force in a run, tying the game, and Arkansas went to the bullpen.
After USC squandered some more opportunities, Matthews held off on the one ball that he needed to. The winning run trotted home, and USC turned the game over to Price.
The redshirt junior did what he does, working around a two-out single in the eighth before facing the bottom of the Hogs' order in the ninth. He struck out two of his final three, making it four of his final seven, and was once again swallowed by his teammates.
"Speechless," Price said, when aware of his record. "I know how many great pitchers have been through the College World Series. Even though I've been coming out of the bullpen, probably vulturing some wins, you could say, giving my team a chance to win is what matters most."
Webb was again magnificent in relief after Holmes, and Pankake drove in the Gamecocks' first run with a fifth-inning RBI single. All that was left was to wait for the final strike - one more time, USC got it, and one more time, USC was headed to the championship series.
"That game could have gone either way," Tanner said. "We felt we had to hold them to three our four runs max to give them a chance to win. We just kept grinding it out. We caught a break there with the walk."
Now comes what everyone discussed sort-of in jest before the season, and was only thought of as the Gamecocks were slow out of the gate.