Gamecocks force Game 3 in super regional

FAYETTEVILLE – South Carolina has done better than most opposing teams at Baum Stadium this season.

Aided by another LT Tolbert grand slam, the Gamecocks forced Game 3 at the Fayetteville Super Regional by beating Arkansas 8-5 on Sunday. It was their second win in five games in Fayetteville, matching the total victories by all other teams in 32 games.

Much like Saturday’s matchup, it was a close game early on until South Carolina exploded in the fifth inning. Tolbert, who hit a grand slam against the Razorbacks at the SEC Tournament last month, sent a 1-1 breaking ball by Jake Reindl over the right field fence to break the game open.

“I kind of blacked out whenever I was running the bases,” Tolbert said. “I don’t even remember what happened. This is what I’ve been waiting my whole life for, to play in this moment.”

Head coach Dave Van Horn pointed to Tolbert’s homer as the key point of the game because it gave the Gamecocks a five-run lead.

“It came down to one swing when LT went down and got that ball,” Van Horn said. “It was probably mid-shin. He hit out into the wind. He hit a pretty good pitcher’s pitch. It was out of the strike zone and just like that, they scored four runs.”

The loss sets up a winner-take-all game at 6 p.m. Monday, with the winner advancing to the College World Series in Omaha. It will be televised on ESPN2.

Although the Razorbacks blew an opportunity to punch their ticket, Van Horn said he is still confident that his team will bounce back strong in Game 3.

“They’ve come through all year long and put together good games after they’ve played a game where it doesn’t go so well,” Van Horn said. “They’ve been real resilient.

“They seem to bounce back. … It’s not like we just lost our puppy. We’re okay. We’re going to be alright.”

Morris vs. Murphy

A day after Blaine Knight out-dueled Adam Hill in a battle of aces, both teams sent their No. 2 starters to the mound Sunday.

Arkansas left-hander Kacey Murphy had the better numbers going into the game, but South Carolina’s Cody Morris had the better day.

The right-hander scattered four hits and a walk across five innings in which he allowed one unearned run and struck out four. Murphy, on the other hand, gave up six hits and matched a career high with four walks, allowing four earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.

South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston said the free passes issued by his pitchers were the difference in Game 1 and that it was a similar story Sunday.

“I thought today was a flip of last night,” Kingston said. “We did a better job today of not giving out free passes and they gave us some and that was the difference in the ballgame.”

The only run Arkansas managed against Morris was the result of three errors. Casey Martin reached on a two-out bunt single in the third and moved to second on a throwing error before scoring when the Gamecocks threw the ball around the diamond for the other two errors.

Having thrown 89 pitches, Morris likely could have gone another inning, but his team put together the long fifth inning and Kingston opted to go to his bullpen instead of bringing him back out after the long break.

Murphy struggled from the start. Van Horn said he was leaving all of his pitches belt high or up, resulting in three South Carolina singles. The third was a two-out RBI single by Justin Row, giving the Gamecocks an early 1-0 lead.

“It always feels good to jump out on a team like that,” Row said. “Arkansas is a great team up and down, pitching staff, hitting, and if you can jump out on them, it’s a good feeling, especially in the first inning.”

The following inning, Murphy loaded the bases with three walks before getting a pop up in the infield to escape unscathed. He also gave up a homer in the third and was eventually taken out after issuing his fourth walk of the day in the fifth inning.

“He just really didn’t command anything,” Van Horn said. “A lot of borderline pitches early he didn’t get and probably a little frustration going on there. … He was behind in the count and couldn’t throw his breaking ball over the plate.”

In his last two outings against the Gamecocks, which includes the SEC Tournament, Murphy has allowed nine earned runs on 11 hits and six walks in 10 innings. That is after he took a perfect game into the seventh inning against them in April.

Pitching in Game 3

Redshirt sophomore Isaiah Campbell will start Monday’s game just eight days removed from lasting only 13 pitches and three batters against Dallas Baptist in the regional.

While some fans are uneasy about him getting the ball, Van Horn said Campbell looked good throwing about 25 pitches in practice last Monday and he still has confidence in his up-and-down right-hander.

“If he goes out there and does what he can do, he’ll be out there for a while,” Van Horn said. “If he doesn’t, we’ll go to the next guy.

“When you get down to this point – and I’m sure they’re the same way – you’ve just got to go with what you see and what you feel. There’s no tomorrow, basically, so we’re going to give him the ball and let him have it as long as he earns it. Hopefully he’ll give us some innings.”

The pitcher Arkansas turned to after Campbell loaded the bases last week was Reindl, who actually pitched in Sunday’s loss. He issued a walk, gave up Tolbert’s grand slam and allowed another homer to Hunter Taylor, coming out of the game after throwing only 10 pitches.

Van Horn said the junior right-hander will be “definitely available” in Game 3.

“He didn’t have control of some things, didn’t have command,” Van Horn said. “We weren’t looking like we were getting back in it real quick and we just went to another pitcher to have him ready in case we didn’t.”

Other than Knight, it will be an all-hands-on-deck situation for the Razorbacks. Van Horn didn’t even rule out Murphy, who threw 155 pitches on consecutive days in last year’s regional.

“I’d say pretty much everybody that thinks they can get somebody out, or we feel like they can get somebody out, we’d give them an opportunity to throw if we needed them,” Van Horn said.

Kingston did not name a starter for the Gamecocks, but did indicate that it would be one of these two freshman right-handers: Carmen Mlodzinski (3-5, 4.84 ERA) or Logan Chapman (3-3, 5.64 ERA).

Dingers

Carson Shaddy ended Arkansas’ two-game homerless drought with a two-run shot in the sixth inning and Heston Kjerstad added a solo shot in the seventh.

That gives Arkansas 92 long balls for the season, tying the school record set in 2010. Kjerstad’s homer was his 14th this season, breaking the UA freshman record previously held by Zack Cox (2009). Martin also has 13 home runs this season.

Other Tidbits

-Sunday’s game drew 11,481 fans, which is the fifth-highest actual attendance in Baum Stadium history.

-An issue that has come up several times this season happened again Sunday, as the Razorbacks went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position. “That’s baseball,” Shaddy said. “You can’t really predict anything because there are two really good teams going head to head against each other as hard as they can.”

-Arkansas and South Carolina will play their seventh game against each other Monday. That is the most times the Razorbacks have played a single opponent in school history. They previously plays six games against South Carolina in 2012, Auburn in 1999 and Texas in five different seasons.