Game rewind: No. 10 South Carolina upsets No. 7 Alabama in SEC Tournament

Postseason baseball is underway now, and the No. 7 seed Alabama Crimson Tide took on the No. 10 seed South Carolina Gamecocks in the SEC Tournament at the Hoover Met on a sunny Tuesday afternoon.

Offense became the name of the game rather quickly as the bats seemed to get hotter and hotter as the afternoon progressed. However, South Carolina had the upper hand at the plate as 14 hits put the Gamecocks over the Crimson Tide with a 10-5 score to move on to the double elimination round of the tournament.

Despite being a favorite in the game, poor pitching and lack of offense throughout the middle of the matchup became the story for Alabama’s day.

Early on, the Crimson Tide got everything started in the bottom half of the first inning as junior outfielder Ian Petrutz put himself on base with a single and was eventually brought home following a hard single by graduate outfielder Will Hamiter to strike first blood on the scoreboard for Alabama.

With a narrow lead going into the second frame, head coach Rob Vaughn’s squad looked to open up the game a little more and did just that. Starting off the inning with a single, a double, and a hit by pitch, the bases were loaded as the bottom of the order took its first swings.

Given his first opportunity to make a difference, senior infielder Bryce Eblin took a pitch to the elbow guard to bring home senior catcher Mac Guscette for the second run of the game. Next up was junior Gage Miller who lifted a long fly ball into center field for a sacrifice fly, bringing home senior TJ McCants to put up the third run for Alabama.

While senior lefty Greg Farone was having a great start to his starting job on the mound, everything seemed to fall apart in the third frame as the veteran pitcher gave up two solo home runs in three batters, allowing for the Gamecocks to find its way back into the ballgame.

Following another single after the two solo shots, it wouldn’t take long for Vaughn to pull his starter and bring in junior righty Aidan Moza who couldn’t seem to gain much success either. Moza gave up a single and a walk before South Carolina’s Dalton Reeves blasted a deep grand slam over the right field wall to take a 6-2 lead, and completely flip the scoreboard around.

Despite the momentum on the Gamecocks’ side, the Crimson Tide were able to respond and still stay in the game in the fourth frame, as a few singles put runners on for freshman Justin Lebron who brought home a run, via a ground ball RBI. Lebron’s effort was immediately followed by Hamiter who doubled to right field and brought home another run to make it a two-run ball game.

However, Alabama’s hopes seemed to grow slim through the middle part of the matchup as the Gamecocks were able tack on another run in the fifth inning, and follow it up with two more in the sixth inning to make it a 9-5 game.

To add more insult to injury, South Carolina was able to continue its success at the plate with yet another run in the eighth inning, via a bases loaded grounder to bring home its final run of the game.

With South Carolina clearly being in the driver’s seat throughout most of the afternoon, the Crimson Tide seemed to take a backseat as it wasn’t able to find any offensive productivity for the last five innings of the day, and Alabama would suffer a hard loss to open up the postseason.

After Tuesday, the Crimson Tide’s SEC title hopes are now gone following the loss in the single elimination round of the tournament, but its national title hopes are not out of the question just yet.

Next up for Vaughn’s squad will be regionals, in which Alabama is projected to be a two seed by various sources. The Crimson Tide will find out its future matchups on May 27 at 11:00 a.m. CT as the College Baseball Selection Show will determine its region and three other opponents.