Tiger fans didn’t just show up, by the fourth inning, Taylor Stadium was absolutely buzzing, fueled by $1.99 beer night and a crowd gone wild.
Although, it didn’t start the way Tigers fans hoped.
South Carolina struck first in the top of the third with a two-run bomb from leadoff Patrick Evans that quieted the early energy. Still, starting pitcher Josh McDevitt wasn’t rattled and answered right back with two strikeouts in the inning, keeping things from getting out of hand.
Then came the moment that
woke everyone up.
In the bottom of the fourth, Pierre Seals ignited the stadium, ripping a triple into right field that had the dugout on its feet. Just moments later, Jase Woita grounded out, but it was enough to have Seals cross the plate, cutting the Tigers deficit to 2–1.
McDevitt kept dealing through the fifth, stacking up strikeouts and showing real grit on the mound. Although, the sixth inning was where things unraveled.
A pair of costly defensive errors cracked the door wide open for the Gamecocks. A misplayed infield fly by Keegan Knutson, and Donovan Jordan’s error, on what should’ve been the third out, let another run sneak in. Just like that, the score jumped to 4–1, and Mizzou was back on its heels.
“We just didn’t play good baseball,” head coach Kerrick Jackson said. “You dropped two hot flies, you don’t have a good approach at the plate. Trying to get a hit is not a good approach, that doesn’t work. This game is too hard for that, so we have to come out and have a better plan and execute that plan, which we’ve shown that we can do in the past.
Still, the Tigers didn’t quit.
In the seventh, Mateo Serna and Eric Maisonet got on base and started to build pressure. Although it fizzled out, leaving runners stranded and another missed opportunity in the books.
McDevitt wrapped up his ninth start on the mound with 100 pitches and eight strikeouts in total, before handing things off to freshman Eli Skidmore in the eighth. This was where the night took a turn you do not see every day.
After a pitching change in the top of the eighth, the fans decided to create their own entertainment by building a massive snake cup that got the entire section roaring.
South Carolina added another run on a wild pitch, making it 5–1, but Skidmore settled in and shut things down from there.
Mizzou had one last push in them. A fielder’s choice got a runner on in the eighth, and Serna getting hit by a pitch in the bottom of the ninth gave a final flicker of hope, but the comeback never came.
Isaiah Salas came in during the top of the ninth, adding another strikeout to the 10 the Tigers had in total on the day.
Final score aside, the Tigers are now 3–10 in conference play, but the fight will not end as they play South Carolina at 6 p.m. Friday, April 10, and again at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 11.
“We definitely got to come back and win tomorrow, and just like I said on the offensive side, just stick to the approach and score runs and get runners over when we need to… And we know we’re going to get a good outing from BK tomorrow, and just kind of just feeding off him,” Seals said.
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