Let me apologize to Winthrop and Coastal Carolina fans who may feel like I short-changed their teams' accomplishments by being so late posting this. I still need to take freelance writing assignments to pay the bills. I had to write two stories from Tuesday night's USC Upstate/James Madison basketball game in Spartanburg, then drive home to Greenville.
Winthrop made history with Tuesday's 11-inning 5-3 victory over No. 6 South Carolina in Columbia. Coupled with a win at Clemson earlier this year, it gave coach Tom Riginos' squad a season sweep of the two most prominent baseball programs in the state and two teams usually in the conversation when the NCAA Tournament is discussed.
It's the first time Winthrop has ever beaten Clemson and USC in the same season and the Eagles' first win over the Gamecocks in 19 years. It also snapped a 10-game USC winning streak this season.
The Eagles likely feel like the game shouldn't have gone into extra innings. South Carolina's three runs against starter Josh Strong were unearned because of Winthrop errors.
The Eagles took a 7-3 in the top of the 11th inning, then had to survive a rally by USC. The Gamecocks (19-4) had the tying run on base when the game ended.
Riginos, a former assistant coach under Jack Leggett at Clemson, is in his fifth season at the Rock Hill school. The Eagles have improved their win total each of the last two seasons and at this point (a 14-5 record so far) it seems a reasonable expectation for the program to have its first winning season since 2009.
Earlier Tuesday, Winthrop's Big South Conference compatriot Coastal Carolina beat a struggling Clemson team, 9-5, in front of a record on-campus home crowd of 2,825 at Springs Brooks Stadium in Conway.
Coach Gary Gilmore's Chanticleers (14-6) were led by David Parrett's grand slam as part of a five-run third inning. They improved to 4-0 against ACC competition this season, with earlier wins over Georgia Tech, N.C. State and North Carolina.
That's strong evidence the Chanticleers are primed to bounce back from a rare losing record of a season ago and challenge to return to the top of the Big South Conference standings.
Oh, the Chanticleers get a chance at another notable win next Tuesday when South Carolina comes to visit.
OK, so what about Tuesday's losers?
First, the parity in college baseball is such that serious fans know ranked teams teams will lose to unranked teams much more frequently in baseball than in football or basketball.
I was at a restaurant in Columbia the first weekend of the season and a gentleman there was incredulous that South Carolina had lost to College of Charleston a day earlier. No amount of discussion was going to convince him CofC had a good team.
With that being said, what I write next is not meant to diminish Winthrop's
accomplishment in any way: South Carolina continues to struggle on both
offense and defense. USC needed help from Winthrop's defense to
avoid being shut out. Other than Elliott Caldwell and Kyle Martin (three hits apiece Tuesday), the
Gamecocks are getting very little offensive production.
I know it's hard to hit a baseball when the opposing pitcher's primary goal is to keep you from doing so. I couldn't hit church league pitching when I was a kid, and that was a much lower caliber of baseball than what college kids face.
The offensive shortcomings are particularly glaring on nights when USC has inconsistent pitching like it did Tuesday
USC
will hard-pressed to finish .500 in the Southeastern Conference - much less
qualify for the NCAA Tournament - if it can't remedy its offensive
woes. This weekend they visit a solid Missouri pitching staff in a meeting of teams with 3-0 SEC records.
And what of Clemson?
Clemson's leadoff batter reached base in each of the first six
innings Tuesday, but the Tigers (9-10) never led. Their only baserunner over
the final three innings came on an error.
The Clemson defense added another error to its total, leading to the final two Coastal Carolina runs. The Tigers' bullpen continued to struggle, too.
The Tigers have lost six of their last seven games. Up next is Virginia Tech - which swept then-No. 1 Virginia last weekend - in Blacksburg, Va. At 2-4 in ACC play, Clemson can ill afford to lose a third straight conference series.
The Gamecocks and Tigers must try to forget their midweek losses to avoid having them distracted for conference play.
Winthrop and Coastal must try to forget the midweek wins, too, so they're focused on Big South Conference series against Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville, respectively.
Who will have an easier time forgetting Tuesday? The winners or the losers? We'll find out this weekend.
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