South Carolina catcher Cole Messina homered in the top of the ninth inning and the Gameco*cks withstood an Arkansas rally in the bottom of the inning to defeat the Razorbacks 6-5 on Wednesday during the quarterfinals of the SEC Baseball Tournament.
The 10th-seeded Gameco*cks (35-21) moved into the winners bracket of the quarterfinals and will play a non-elimination game against 11th-seeded LSU on Thursday.
Arkansas, the No. 2 seed, will play third-seeded Kentucky in an elimination game Thursday at 9:30 a.m. LSU defeated Kentucky 11-0 in eight innings Wednesday.
Messina’s second two-run home run of the game was on a first-pitch breaking ball from Gabe Gaeckle with no outs in the ninth inning. Like Messina’s first homer against Parker Coil in the fifth inning, it followed Blake Jackson getting hit by a pitch to lead off an inning.
Four of South Carolina's runs were scored by players who reached on a walk or hit by pitch.
“Free passes at this time of year when everybody plays good, they'll come back and get you,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said, “and they got us today.”
Arkansas had three consecutive one-out singles in the ninth inning by Peyton Stovall, Hudson White and Ben McLaughlin to pull within 6-5. Wehiwa Aloy grounded into a fielder’s choice for the second out and Jared Sprague-Lott flied out to strand two base runners.
The Razorbacks (43-13) stranded 10 base runners and the Gameco*cks stranded 12. Arkansas out-hit South Carolina 10-9.
“We had a couple of chances to blow it open,” Van Horn said. “Instead of a two-run inning, maybe three or four — one hit away. That was disappointing.”
Both of Messina’s home runs were hit to straightaway center field. He went 3 for 4 with 5 RBI. Messina has homered three times in two days.
“He's the heart and soul of our team,” South Carolina coach Mark Kingston said. “And when the heart and soul of your team is playing that well, it just allows everybody else to kind of follow suit.”
South Carolina never trailed and quickly answered each Arkansas score. Messina’s RBI single in the top of the third inning gave the Gameco*cks a 2-1 lead after Sprague-Lott tied the game 1-1 with an RBI single to score McLaughlin (single) in the bottom of the second inning.
Pinch hitter Ryder Helfrick tied the game again, 2-2, with a sacrifice fly to score McLaughlin (walk) in the fourth inning, but Messina’s first homer put the Gameco*cks ahead 4-2 the next half inning.
“He’s dangerous,” Van Horn said. “When we played them over there earlier in the season, he was the guy that we would not let beat us. As a matter of fact, I know we intentionally walked him in one big situation when the game was on the line.”
Arkansas tied the game 4-4 in the seventh inning when Will Edmunson and Kendall Diggs singled to lead off against South Carolina reliever Ty Good. Following a pitching change to left-hander Garrett Gainey, Stovall doubled to score Edmunson, and Diggs scored on a McLaughlin sacrifice fly.
The Razorbacks squandered a chance for a more damaging inning. Right fielder Ethan Petry made a diving catch on the McLaughlin ball to record the first out of the inning, and Arkansas’ leading run producer, Aloy, struck out in four pitches with a runner at third base and one out.
Aloy went 0 for 5, struck out twice and reached base on a throwing error that contributed to the run in the fourth inning. Aloy came to the plate four times with runners on base.
“Give them credit for pitching out of a couple of jams,” Van Horn said.
Sprague-Lott lined out to strand two base runners in the seventh inning against Gainey. The lefty gave the Gameco*cks three solid innings in relief to earn his first victory. He allowed 1 run, 4 hits and 1 walk, and struck out 3.
“Once we had the lead, we decided, ‘OK, we're going to give the ball to Garrett. It's going to be a little bit longer outing, but hopefully he can take us home,’” Kingston said. “That's exactly what we did.”
South Carolina starter Eli Jones allowed 1 run in 3 1/3 innings and Good allowed 2 runs in 2 2/3 innings of relief.
Arkansas threw five pitchers. Starter Ben Bybee lasted 2 1/3 innings and allowed 2 runs, 3 hits and 3 walks.
Christian Foutch was strong for 1 2/3 innings. Coil allowed two runs in the fifth before Jake Faherty held the Gameco*cks scoreless in the sixth and seventh.
Gaeckle stranded a two-out base runner in scoring position in the eighth inning with a strikeout of Petry, who swung through a 3-2 changeup. He struggled in the ninth, though, when South Carolina put four base runners on against him.
Arkansas and South Carolina evened their season series. The Razorbacks won a series between the teams April 19-20 in Columbia, S.C.
Why Arkansas lost
South Carolina capitalized on walks and hit batsmen, and the Razorbacks only scored four combined runs in ideal scenarios in the second, seventh and ninth innings.
Player of the Game: South Carolina C Cole Messina
Messina had his second consecutive three-hit day with multiple extra-base hits at the tournament. He is a combined 6 for 8 with 8 RBI and 3 home runs against Alabama and Arkansas.
He partially credited his success during Tuesday's game for wearing an old Phillie Phanatic headband for the first time this season. What was the secret Wednesday?
“I think it’s [pitcher] Jake McCoy. He’s been getting me chicken minis for the past few days,” Messina told SEC Network. “He’s going to keep doing it.”
Bracket impact
Arkansas is 4-6 during its last 10 games against teams that are all expected to play in a regional next week. The stretch has likely affected the Razorbacks' positioning within the top eight national seeds, but Arkansas is not in any danger of losing home-field advantage in the regional and super regional rounds.
South Carolina had fallen toward the bubble with six consecutive losses to national seeds Georgia and Tennessee in the final two weeks of the regular season, but the Gameco*cks have solidified their postseason resume over two days in Hoover.
Up next
Arkansas will play Kentucky on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. The Wildcats went 2-1 against the Razorbacks during a series May 3-5 at Kentucky Proud Park, including a 7-4 victory in the rubber match of the series.
