A Seven Run Eight Inning Pushes Tide Baseball Over Gamecocks

The Alabama Crimson Tide took down the South Carolina Gamecocks 13-6 in an offensive explosion to clinch their second SEC series win of the season. Crimson Tide reliever Pierce George was credited with the win tonight, allowing no hits and striking out one over one inning. South Carolina's Matthew Becker was credited with the loss tonight, allowing five earned runs and eight hits over 4.1 innings.

Game two of tonight's critical SEC matchup started off slow. The first two innings were quick, with minimal offense, and the Tide and the Gamecocks seemed to start to settle into a standstill.

The Tide broke open the floodgates with a five-run third inning off the back of a two-RBI single from Ian Petrutz and a two-run shot from Evan Sleight.

"I was just using my plan," said Petrutz in the postgame press conference. "Talking to the other hitters, kind of understanding what those pitchers are going to do to us [...] it took us a while to get going. But once we started to get going and hunting elevation, as we work on all the time with guys that try to get down in the zone and have some good stuff, some good sink, and some good run on pitches, we just executed.

The South Carolina offense swung back with a haymaker in the fifth, scoring four runs thanks to a Parker Noland two-RBI single and a Cole Messina two-run homerun. The Tide, however, would respond in the bottom of the inning with an Evan Sleight RBI double to extend the lead to 6-4.

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South Carolina would punch right back in the top of the sixth, adding two runs to tie the game at six. The Tide would go 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth, and momentum seemed to start to shift toward the Gamecock's favor.

After a scoreless seventh inning, the Tide slammed the door on a potential South Carolina comeback, pushing seven runs across home plate, including a monster three-run shot to the Right Field Rangers by Ian Petrutz.

"When they get rolling, it's a dang steamroller at that point. [...] It comes in bunches a lot, they feed off each other." said Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn about tonight's offensive output. "I think that's what really good teams do; they don't let up, they just keep coming. After Kade slugs that ball in the gap, you go up by three; it's easy for a lot of teams to go. Okay, we're good; we've got A.D. [Alton Davis II] in the bullpen [...]. It's like they take the foot off the gas [...], and when they get going, it's a heck of a lot of fun." 

Coulson Buchanan would come on to close out the game for the Tide, only allowing two singles and forcing the game-ending double play, where Gage Miller tagged third and whipped it over to Will Hodo at first to end the ballgame.

The Tide will look to finish off the Gamecocks tomorrow at 1 P.M.

For more Alabama Baseball content from Simon Besnoy, follow him on X/Twitter at @SimonBesnoy and stay tuned to Tide1009.com for daily news.