BOTTOM 9 - Lead off single to left field by Heck off of Mincey. If he finishes this out, he should get a save for throwing three. It'd be his second of the year. Mincey walks Brown. Oh well. No save. Meyers comes out to the mound and calls in Taylor Widener to close this thing out. Vickerson reaches out and touches a single to center. Cone more than a bit lazy trying to field the ball, commits an error, and allows each runner to move up a base. A run scores, two more in scoring position. Ground ball to short plates another run, but Mooney gets an out at first base. Another run comes in on what is scored a wild pitch. I thought I saw passed ball, but what do I know. Probably mis-saw it from up here. Third strike gets by Koch but Humphreys doesn't run. He's thrown out at first base. Two down. Schrock makes another strong defensive play to end the game. FINAL: Carolina 13 - MSU 7. W: Murray (4-0) HR: Schrock (4). The Gamecocks (21-11, 6-6) host Appalachian State on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
TOP 9 - Mooney strikes out but the ball gets by the catcher. He makes it to first base without a throw. Cone lines out to left center. Tracked well by Robson. Schrock singles through the right side to give him five hits on the day. That's a career high five hits. Martin is hit by a pitch. He seemed a bit rattled. Caldwell flied out to center, which should have gone for a sac fly, but Martin was doubled off of first base. He must have thought there were two outs. Carolina leads 13-4.
BOTTOM 8 - Humphreys pops up to Schrock at second base. Robson singles through the left side. Rea hits a ground ball inside the third base bag. Arendas tries to make the jump throw from foul territory behind the bag, but can't quite get enough on it or in the right direction to get Rea. Gridley flies out to center. The inning ends on a ground ball to second. Schrock flips to Mooney at short for the out. Carolina leads 13-4.
TOP 8 - Mooney works the count full taking a borderline 2-2 pitch. He started walking towards the dugout, but didn't need to. I guess I jinxed Gridley earlier as he makes an error on a routine ground ball that hopped up on him a little bit. That's the first error of the weekend though for MSU, and there's a lot to be said for playing error-free baseball for 25 innings. Mooney on, Cone up showing bunt. Takes two pitches low. Count goes full. Mooney takes off and Cone grounds out U3. Mooney on second for Schrock. He singles to second base. Martin walks to load the bases. Caldwell singles to score a run and Bright is hit by a pitch to bring in another. Bases still chock full of Gamecocks for freshman Madison Stokes. He goes down in the count 1-2 and keeps his long swing through strike three. Two down. Arendas drops a two-RBI single to right field. That makes all nine Gamecocks with a hit today. Koch flies out to deep left to end the inning. Carolina leads 13-4
BOTTOM 7 - Gridley singles through the right side to lead off the inning. Back-to-back doubles, one in the right field corner and the other in the left, bring in two runs. Jerry Meyers comes out to call in Cody Mincey. He walks his first hitter on four pitches. Vickerson hits a line drive but it's right at Martin, who steps on the bag at first base for a double play. That *should* keep the Bulldogs from having a really big inning. Cone hauls in a pop fly to end the inning. Carolina leads 9-4
TOP 7 - Stokes and Arendas both go down on strikes. Koch grounds out 4-3 to end the inning. Carolina leads 9-2.
BOTTOM 6 - Two more quick outs for Murray. Collins flies out and Humphreys grounds out. Robson walks on a full count pitch giving the Bulldogs just their second base runner off of Murray in the game. Rea jumps on the first pitch he sees and drills it to center. Cone settles under it just shy of the warning track for the final out of the inning. Carolina leads 9-2.
TOP 6 - Mooney grounds out 5-3 to begin the inning. Cone walks on a borderline full count pitch. Schrock hits a bullet past Rea at first base to put runners on the corners with one down. Martin hits what should be a double play ball but since MSU is dumb enough to play that shift, the second baseman can't throw to second from right field, so he has to just get Martin at first base. Run scores, Cone to second. Two down for Caldwell. He hits an infield single to first base. Hits of Rea's glove and no play. Runners on the corners with two down for Bright. He hits a dribbler to third base. Play made on the run by Heck to end the inning. Carolina leads 9-2
BOTTOM 5 - That's four straight 4-3 outs. Schrock fields another grounder and throws to Martin at first. One down. Seth Heck drops a single to center, which ends a streak of 11 in a row set down by Brandon Murray. Heck swipes second base on the first pitch then goes to third on another ground out to Schrock. Murray ends Schrock's streak of outs by getting Vickerson to strike out to end the inning. Carolina leads 8-2.
TOP 5 - Stokes with a chopper over the mound. Gridley is charging hard from short and makes the play on the run. He's been stellar defensively at short this weekend. He's a guy that South Carolina recruited. I had him profiled as second base only. I didn't think he could play short at such a high level, but he has. Arendas goes down looking at an inside fastball for strike three. Koch up. He loves that first pitch. Bounces that one foul. Koch bounces out 4-3 to end the inning. Carolina leads 8-2.
BOTTOM 4 - Robson hits a ball that looks ticketed for right field. Schrock makes a diving play in the grass and throws from his knees to first. The throw is wide but Martin makes a nice stretch, keeps his foot on the bag for the out. Second out is hit to him but more routine. Ball bounced up on him a little bit, handcuffing him, but makes it cleanly. Third ground ball to second base is routine all the way around. Another nice inning for Brandon Murray and a very goo defensive inning by Schrock. Carolina leads 8-2.
TOP 4 - Mooney pops out to left to begin the inning. Cone takes one off the elbow. One on, one down. Max Schrock just launched an 0-1 pitch to right field. Monster shot from him. Martin grounds out 5-3. Caldwell walks. That'll end Mitchell's day. RHP Levi Mintz, a freshman, coming in to pitch now for the Bulldogs. Caldwell steals second base to get into scoring position with two outs. Bright up and swings at a 3-1 breaking ball to make the count full. Hits a chopper to third base. He's thrown out by a half step. He seemed to get down the line a little quicker. Some of these guys seem to be playing with a greater sense of urgency today. Carolina leads 8-2
BOTTOM 3 - Martin with a slick defensive play of his own snagging a sinking line drive across his body right off the dirt. Not sure if they ruled it a catch or not, but he stepped on the bag just for good measure. Collins pops out to left. Mooney fields a ground ball to his right. He gets his feet tangled up and falls over. But he figures out a way to get the ball over to first base from his knees just in time to get the out. Today might just be the Gamecocks' day. Carolina leads 6-2.
TOP 3 - Connor Bright hits a rocket of a ground ball up the third base line. Ball bounces over the base and actually hits off the umpire in foul territory. Ball is still fair, still called fair, but ricochets towards the left fielder. Prevented Bright from getting a double, but he has a single, then takes second on a wild pitch. Stokes singles back up the middle. Bright held at third base. Arendas hits a line drive to right field but it, again, is right at the fielder. Vickerson makes the catch. Bright scores. Stokes still stands on first base. Two down for Koch. He grounds into a 1-6-3 double play on the first pitch of the at-bat. Carolina does manage to get another run though. Carolina leads 6-2
BOTTOM 2 - Murray back to the mound. It'd be good to find a hot pitcher. Maybe he's the man this Sunday like he was against Missouri. He gets a ground ball off the bat of Holland. Mooney takes a couple of steps to his right, backhands and throws to first for the out. Nice stretch by Martin there, too. One down. Murray goes behind 3-1 to nine-hole hitter Heck. DC Arendas makes a Gold Glove kind of play at third base. Martin fields a slow roller at first, steps on the bag and ends the inning. Important to throw up a zero after scoring some runs. Carolina leads 5-2.
TOP 2 - Madison Stokes hits a hard ground ball through the five hole and into left field. Arendas goes down on strikes. Tatum paying close attention to Stokes with Koch coming to the plate. Logan Koch, folks. Soft shot to center. Robson makes a diving attempt but misses. Ball rolls by him. Stokes to third, Koch slides head first into second base. Mooney jumps on the first pitch and hits a hard ground ball inside the third base bag for a double. Scores both runs. MAH-CUS! MSU also making an early move to the bullpen. MSU making a pitching change. LHP Ross Mitchell entering. I feel like he's been around forever. Cone tries a sac bunt. It goes right back to the pitcher and Mitchell tries to get Mooney at third. Mooney was going hard and slid hard into third base underneath the tag. Cone safe at first. Schrock up and hits a shallow fly ball to right center. Right fielder makes the catch. He throws a rainbow home and Cone takes second base. Mooney stays at third. Martin up. Need ya, big boy. He drops a two-out single to shallow left field. Scores both runs. Caldwell grounds into a fielders choice seeing Martin cut down at second base. Carolina leads 5-2
BOTTOM 1 - Line drive single up the middle. Line drive double to the right field wall. Runners on second and third with no one out. Chopper back up the middle by Collins. Mooney makes the play in front of the bag. One in, one down, runner on third. Schmidt falls behind 3-0 but works it back to 3-2. After a couple of foul balls, Humphreys walks. Two on, one down. Schmidt falls behind Robson 3-0. Walks him, too. Jerry Meyers out to the mound. Brandon Murray warms up in the bullpen. Wes Rea digs in. He just misses a double into the left field corner. Line drive falls foul. Schmidt then hits Rea on a 1-2 pitch to bring in another run. That brings in another run and also brings out Jerry Meyers. Murray coming in. He falls behind in the count 2-1 but gets a double play ball to end the inning. MSU leads 2-1
TOP 1 - Carolina off to a nice start against LHP Vance Tatum, who enters with a 3-0 record, 3.12 ERA, 43.1 IP, 33 H, 13 BB, and 36 K. Cone bounces a single up the middle and Schrock lines one to right. Mississippi State playing another huge shift on Martin. Second baseman is basically playing shallow right a good 20 feet on the grass. Shortstop playing on the second base side of the bag. Martin walks on five pitches though loading them for Elliott Caldwell. Cohen comes out to visit his pitcher. Caldwell goes ahead in the count 2-1 but then takes a fastball under the hands to even the count at 2-2. Ball three high. Caldwell hits a bullet to left but Brown makes a sliding catch. Good enough to bring home one run. Bright hits a lazy pop fly to right. Schrock tags up at second and heads for third. For some reason, Martin thinks its a good idea to try to go to second base. Shortstop cuts off the the throw and flips to second base to get Martin by a mile. That ends the inning. Bases loaded, no outs, one run. Carolina leads 1-0
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