Gamecocks win SEC East outright with 9-7 victory
Box Score | Holbrook's process shines
TUSCALOOSA, ALA.—The crowd was thinning after the game, but a few garnet and black shirts stayed in the stands. They watched as Dom Thompson-Williams and Marcus Mooney went up to head coach Chad Holbrook and doused him with Gatorade, the garnet droplets scattering around him.
The Gamecocks had just won the SEC Eastern Division outright with a 9-7 victory over Alabama.
“It was cold, but it felt good. It’s amazing group of kids,” Holbrook said smiling. “They’re not the best baseball players in the world, but boy they care about each other and they love each other. They’re pretty good, but our togetherness and camaraderie are the difference for us. It’s a rewarding day for us.”
Coming into Saturday’s game, South Carolina needed to win and Florida to lose at least one game to LSU to clinch the East. About 40 minutes from first pitch, the second part happened as the Tigers beat Florida 7-3.
“There were probably a few guys who had some rumblings and knew,” DC Arendas said. “We didn’t really want to talk about it because we were in the middle of the game. If you lose focus for one second, you lose a ballgame,”
Now came the hard part: beating the Tide.
It started smoothly for the Gamecocks (42-13, 20-9 SEC) as they plated three runs in the first inning on three straight two-out hits. The lead would be erased in the third as Alabama would score four runs behind a two-out, two-run home run from Georgie Salem.
The 4-3 lead wouldn’t last long. In the next inning John Jones skidded a single to the left side to drive home a run and tie the game. Jones would also drive in the go-ahead run in the next inning to give the Gamecocks the lead for the rest of the game.
Jones finished 2-for-3 from the plate with four RBI, one shy of tying his career high.
“I’ve been feeling comfortable regardless of what other people think,” he said. “Things haven’t bounced my way, I haven’t spread it out as much as I’d like. It’s finally showing.”
Alabama wouldn’t go quietly, cutting the lead to one run three more times during the game, but South Carolina’s bullpen got big outs when they needed to.
With the Tide having runners on the corners, one out, Reed Scott came and didn’t allow a run, getting a fly out with the bases loaded to end the inning. The ball, which was tattooed, held up just long enough for TJ Hopkins to make a sprinting catch in centerfield.
“TJ’s fast out there and covers a lot of ground,” Scott said. “That was a big play. Off the bat, I knew the kid didn’t square it up perfectly, but I knew he got a lot of it. For TJ to catch it, that’s a sigh of relief on the mound.”
Things would hold serve and the Gamecocks would ride things out with Tyler Johnson over the last five outs to get the win. It was Johnson’s ninth save this year and third in as many days.
“Tyler was awesome. He might have had his best stuff of the weekend,” Holbrook said. “We may need to throw him more often. It was impressive.”
With the garnet Gatorade droplets covering the ground and South Carolina's head coach, the team and coaches smiled, packed up and began walking to the bus ready to celebrate the championship.
It's South Carolina’s seventh SEC East title, first since 2011 and first under Holbrook. The Gamecocks still have a chance to win the SEC Title if Texas A&M and Mississippi State both lose their games Saturday.
It’s Holbrook’s first trophy he’s won as a head coach and the first time any of the players have won anything in the SEC. Holbrook was an assistant on both National Champion teams.
And for him, he said this win is “up there” in terms of head coaching highlights.
“This is our best accomplishment in the regular season, obviously. If you win 20 games in this league, man,” he said. “It’s an incredible accomplishmen.t I’m as proud as I can possibly be. I’ve been lucky to be in some big wins, but you know this is when we get to call ourselves champions for today. That’s pretty cool.”
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