South Carolina baseball's rally in 7th, 8th innings rescue SEC series win over Missouri

South Carolina baseball needed to win Sunday's rubber match against Missouri. A conference series loss to the Tigers could have massively shifted the Gamecocks' postseason fate.

After the Tigers' hot start, things looked difficult for No. 14 South Carolina (32-15, 13-11 SEC), but eight runs in the last three innings ultimately clinched the series with a 9-4 win in Columbia, Missouri.

On Wednesday, the Gamecocks were projected to host a regional as the No. 10 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, but a loss to the Tigers (21-28, 7-17) would have been hard for the selection committee to ignore.

South Carolina won Friday 10-2, but dropped Saturday's game 8-3. The rally on Sunday not only saved its weekend, but avoided a potential drop in seedings.

When Austin Brinling's massive catch against the wall prevented a grand slam, momentum swung back in the Gamecocks' direction.

They found themselves down 4-1 early, but Dalton Reeves' solo homer and Ethan Petry's 18th home run of the season, which extended his hitting streak to seven games, tied things up 4-4 in the top of the seventh. They took the lead with three runs in the eighth.

South Carolina baseball's pitching change on Sunday pays off

Missouri scored four runs through 1.1 innings off junior right-hander Dylan Eskew, who was replaced by Garrett Gainey. Gainey had five strikeouts, allowed one hit and no runs in 3.2 innings.

Connor McCreery came in for 2.2 innings and got the win, giving up one hit and striking out four. After a 30-minute delay due to lightning, Chris Veach came in and got a timely strikeout to end the eighth.

Cole Messina huge for South Carolina baseball against Missouri

Cole Messina had five RBIs for the Gamecocks on Friday as they scored double-digit runs for the fourth straight game. In the fifth, he had a two-run double and in the eighth, his three-run homer was part of a five-run inning.

"When (Messina) is going, it really helps our offense a lot, he's one of our best players, clearly one of the best in the country so when he's going well, the other guys seem to really follow," coach Mark Kingston said of Messina.

In Saturday's 8-3 loss, Messina had an RBI triple, giving him a 9-for-16 stat line in his past five games. On Sunday, Messina finished the series with a home run, an RBI, one double, three hits and two runs scored. The junior catcher from Summerville, South Carolina, went into Sunday's game with 51 hits, 48 RBIs and 13 home runs this season.

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Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina baseball's 9-4 win saves road series vs. Missouri