South Carolina earns walk-off win over Kentucky with late-game homer heroics

Sometimes, you just chalk it up to being baseball. that was the case Friday night at Founders Park, unless you believe in divine intervention.

Thanks to two Blake Jackson home runs in the final two innings, No. 24 South Carolina rallied for an improbable 6-5 victory in 10 innings Friday night against No. 4 Kentucky. The junior came into the contest with one home run on the season and was inserted back into the lineup more for his speed than his power.

The second home run stood after a short review showed the ball glancing off the railing in left field, scoring Kennedy Jones and Jackson with the winning runs to give the Gamecocks their first walk-off home run since 2019.

Head coach Mark Kingston said that the game-winner might have had a little help.

“I’ve been waiting to say it, but I think that is one those where (long-time radio announcer) Tommy Moody was watching us from above and helped kind of nudged ball out of the ballpark,” Kingston said to open his postgame remarks. “That’s as good of a win as we’ve had this year, obviously. Sometimes, you have to come up here after a loss and say that’s just baseball (but) tonight we won a game and it’s hard to figure out how we did it other than that’s just baseball.”

Jackson wasn’t sure about the second home run either. He had a brief conversation with assistant coach Monte Lee before the at-bat to discuss if they were going to try to bunt to move Kennedy Jones into scoring position.

“I wasn’t sure if I got it,” Jackson said. “The wind was blowing out so I know I hit it high enough for the wind to take it and I was just praying that would happen. Luckily, it did.”

How improbable was it? The Gamecocks trailed 4-1 going to the bottom of the ninth and again 5-4 entering the 10th inning. It was the first win for the Gamecocks this season after trailing in the eighth inning or later. They are now 1-13 in those situations this season.

Kentucky (32-8, 15-4) broke open a pitcher’s duel with three runs in the top of the ninth to take a 4-1 lead.

A lot of fans started heading to the exit before Jackson started the comeback with an opposite field home run into the Kentucky bullpen. After a strikeout, Dalton Reeves pinch hit and added a solo shot to make it 4-3. Gavin Casas also came on as a pinch-hitter and followed with his sixth home run to tie it at four.

South Carolina (28-13, 10-9) didn’t have a hit from the third inning until the ninth but then hit four balls out of Founders Park. They also didn’t have a home run in the series last week at home against Arkansas, the first time that has happened since 2017.

“We beat a team today that was 15-3 in the league when we were down by three runs in the ninth inning,” Kingstson said. “That’s something our guys will be able to draw on for the rest of the year. Whether it creates momentum, we’ll see, but they showed a lot of heart.”

Kingston got eight solid innings from starter Roman Kimball and Ty Good. He considers those two his co-starters and will let them go as deep as possible.

Good was particularly effective. He was nearly untouchable for the five innings he worked, allowing just two hits with seven strikeouts with a walk and a hit batter. He allowed two runs when the Wildcats rallied in the ninth on the use of small ball.

Kentucky starter Trey Pooser, who played at Hanahan High School and the College of Charleston, made the most of his homecoming. The right-hander posted a career-high 11 strikeouts, three hits allowed with three walks and a hit batter in his 114-pitch effort. The last time a Kentucky starter struck out double figures came last season against South Carolina on April 2, 2023.

▪ NEXT: Game two is Saturday at 6 p.m. (SEC Network).