Johnson's complete game masterpiece forces winner-take-all game Monday
Entering his second career start Sunday night, South Carolina flamethrower Tyler Johnson’s longest career outing was four innings against Wofford in early March.
The Midlothian, Va., native more than doubled that number in perhaps the most pressure-packed outing of his career.
Dominating a UNC Wilmington lineup containing seven hitters batting above the .300 mark, Johnson limited the Seahawks to five hits while fanning a career-high 11 in a 10-1 victory that propelled the Gamecocks into a winner-take-all matchup against UNCW Monday night at Founders Park.
The winner of tonight’s 6 p.m. showdown faces Oklahoma State, winner of the Clemson Regional in next weekend's Super Regionals. The Cowboys ended Clemson's season Sunday night with a 9-2 victory.
The lopsided win over UNCW capped an outstanding day of baseball for the Gamecocks, which stayed alive with a thundering 23-2 win over Rhode Island before defeating the Seahawks. The Gamecocks improved to 21-3 in NCAA Tournament games at Founders Park after outscoring Sunday’s two opponents by a 33-3 margin.
“It was obviously a great day for our team,” USC head coach Chad Holbrook said. “We played some great baseball for 18 innings today against some good players and good teams.”
Making his first start since April 14, 2015, Johnson blanked the Seahawks over the final eight innings after surrendering a solo homer to the second UNCW batter he faced.
Not bad for a guy who thought he would last three or four innings. But like the Energizer Bunny, Johnson just kept going and going, and didn’t slow down until he had crossed the finish line.
“He went into his outing thinking he would get three or four innings and get us off to a good start,” Holbrook said. “That was the plan. But he really got loose around the fourth or fifth inning and got better as the game went on. He works extremely hard in the weight room and has put on a lot of weight.
“That hard work enabled him to keep getting better as the game went along against a great hitting team. It was an incredible performance because those guys can really swing the bats. They have more homers than most teams have doubles.”
Relying on an assortment of pitches featuring a blazing fastball, changeup, slider and curve, Johnson retired 20 of 23 Seahawk batters in one stretch, including 15 of 16 from the third to the first out of the eighth inning. He set down UNCW in order three straight innings (fourth, fifth and sixth).
“Against those guys, you just couldn’t throw one pitch,” Holbrook said. “(Johnson) doesn’t use his changeup or slider as much when he’s trying to close a game down. He’s just trying to blow it by you. Tonight he had to use everything and he did. He threw some great changeups and breaking pitches. It was an incredible, special performance. How much he has improved from last year to this year is a testament to him and his hard work.”
UNCW came to the Columbia Regional with a reputation as a team that loved to mash the baseball. The Seahawks had a season team batting average of .323 with 86 homers and had scored 22 runs in their first two NCAA Tournament games when Johnson fired his first pitch Sunday night.
Considering the win-or-else circumstances, Johnson’s performance reminded Holbrook of Michael Roth’s stunning complete game masterpiece against Clemson at the 2010 College World Series in Omaha.
“Tyler Johnson will go down in Gamecock lore as far as (clutch) performances,” Holbrook said. “It reminded me of 2010 when we had a reliever that hadn’t started a game named Roth. We threw him in there and he had a complete game.”
The Gamecocks produced all the offense they would need in the bottom of the second. Back-to-back one-out walks to LT Tolbert and Marcus Mooney, and a line drive single by DC Arendas loaded the bases for the red-hot Gene Cone, USC’s best hitter. The junior from Spring Valley High School took full advantage of a golden RBI opportunity, drilling a 3-1 pitch off the base of the right-center field wall for a bases-clearing three-run double.
Three batters later, Dom Thompson-Williams singled home two additional runs to give the Gamecocks a 5-1 lead.
They were never seriously threatened thereafter.
“We had a lot of guys step up,” Holbrook said. “Gene’s big hit that cleared the bases in the five-run second got the momentum in our dugout. We played great all day long, but nobody has awarded us anything other than two games today. They don’t give you a trophy for winning two games in a single day.”
Three walks by UNCW pitchers contributed heavily to USC’s three run sixth that all but salted the game away for the Gamecocks based on how Johnson was throwing.
Consecutive walks to DTW and Madison Stokes plated a run before reserve catcher Hunter Taylor continued his post-season heroics with a two-run single to left.
“I have a soft place in my heart for (Taylor) because he’s handled a lot of tough stuff the right way,” Holbrook said. “I couldn’t be happier for him not only getting the big hit (against Duke Saturday), but for catching his tail off yesterday and again today. It’s not easy catching 97 miles an hour and blocking every ball thrown in the dirt with two strikes. Hopefully, that is a mark we are a true team.”
The Gamecocks batted .353 (6-17) in the game with runners in scoring position and .348 (8-23) with runners on base. They were also 2-for-2 with the bases loaded.
USC added single runs in the seventh (RBI single by Hopkins) and eighth (RBI groundout by Tolbert) innings and Johnson mowed through the UNCW lineup. The Seahawks had two batters reach base in just two innings. One of those was the ninth when a double and error with two outs led to Johnson’s third crowd-pleasing strikeout of the inning.
On the heels of back-to-back wins Sunday, the Gamecocks hope to experience that same winning feeling Monday night when the Columbia Regional wraps up with one final, high stakes showdown.
“We have to try to focus and get ready for tomorrow’s game and play our best baseball,” Holbrook said. “We’ll try to piece it together as best we can.”
LINESCORE
NCW (41-18) – 100 000 000 = 1-5-0
USC (45-16) – 050 003 11x = 10-13-1
WP – Tyler Johnson (3-2)
LP – Cory Gantz (4-1)
SV – None
HR – UNCW, Brian Mims (1st, none on)
RBI – Gene Cone (3), DTW (2), Hunter Taylor (2), Madison Stokes (1), TJ Hopkins (1), LT Tolbert (1)
LOB – USC 10, UNCW 4
A – 5,671
TIME – 3:06
Gamecock Pitchers: Tyler Johnson (9.0, 115 pitches)
HOW THE RUNS SCORED:
NCW 1st - Linkous struck out looking, Mims homered to right-center (RBI), Stupienski fouled out to third, Feight struck out swinging. 1 RUN, 1 HIT (NCW 1-0).
USC 2nd – Taylor struck out looking, Tolbert walked, Mooney walked, Arendas singled to center, Cone doubled to right-center (3 RBI), Hopkins singled to right, <Barnes for Gatz>, Destino struckout looking, Hopkins stole second, DTW singled to left (2 RBI) and advanced to second on throw home, Stokes struckout swinging (2-3). 5 RUNS, 4 HITS (USC 5-1).
USC 6th – Arendas struckout, Cone singled to left. Hopkins walked, Destino flied to center, DTW walked, Stokes walked (RBI), Taylor singled to left (2 RBI), Tolbert popped to pitcher. 3 RUNS, 2 HITS (USC 8-1).
USC 7th - Mooney flied to right, Arendas doubled to left, Cone grounded to second, Hopkins singled up the middle (RBI), Destino grounded to second. 1 RUN, 2 HITS (USC 9-1).
USC 8th – DTW grounded to second, Stokes singled to left, Taylor singled to left, Stokes stole third and Taylor stole second, Tolbert grounded to second (RBI), Mooney fouled to third. 1 RUN, 2 HITS (USC 10-1)
