The entire South Carolina baseball team felt queasy, but Havens felt worse. I didn t make two plays that I always make, the sophomore shortstop said. It was just bad.
It s pretty much basically four runs on me tonight. Havens took the blame, but there was plenty go around for the Gamecocks after a demoralizing Friday night. Two nightmare innings took them from one day away from Omaha to one day closer to elimination.
South Carolina fell 9-6 after leading 6-0 in the first game of its best-of-three series at North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament Super Regionals. And the rundown on the scoring was simple: All of South Carolina s runs came on home runs. All of North Carolina s came after there were two outs and nobody on base.
Nine runs with two outs. You don t see that happen too often, North Carolina coach Mike Fox said. North Carolina s cozy Boshamer Stadium was packed, but about two-fifths were South Carolina fans.
Sitting on the left side of the stadium, they were giddy after Robbie Grinestaff launched a pinch-hit grand slam in the sixth inning to make it a six-run game. Grinestaff s shot was one of just two swings that produced USC s runs. The other was James Darnell s two-run homer in the first inning.
North Carolina s runs came in two innings, but with plenty of swings: Five consecutive batters reached base in the sixth inning, netting two runs, and eight in a row reached in the seventh, scoring six more. Havens committed an error in each ill-fated inning and left fielder Cheyne Hurst misplayed a single into a run-scoring double in the seventh. The bullpen also struggled, as USC coach Ray Tanner used four different relievers, including three in the seventh.
The first reliever, Curtis Johnson, replaced starter Harris Honeycutt and clamped down in the sixth to keep the lead at 6-3. But when Johnson ran into more trouble in the seventh, Tanner brought in Jeff Jeffords, who was wild before he got in the game. One of his warmup throws ended up down the right-field line, causing a short delay.
He indicated he was ready probably five or six pitches before I made the move, Tanner said of Jeffords. He felt like he was ready to go. At least he told me he was.
Once in the game, Jeffords walked the bottom two batters in UNC s lineup. The latter walk tied the game. After one ball to the next hitter, Tanner took out Jeffords and called for lefty Will Atwood.
Atwood threw strikes, but North Carolina s Reid Fronk hit the second one up the middle, where it took a bad hop past second baseman Travis Jones. That allowed Kyle Seager to score the go-ahead run. The next hitter, Tim Fedroff, hit a shot that ricocheted off Atwood and went to Havens, who booted the ball.
There s really nothing else I can say other than it s my fault, Havens said. I just didn t make two plays, but I m gonna flush it and come out (today) and be ready to play. Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.
The entire South Carolina baseball team felt queasy, but Havens felt worse.
News RSS