OMAHA, Neb. — When it comes to in-state rival Clemson, South Carolina considers any victory over the Tigers to be a great one.
Saturday’s victory was greater yet.
South Carolina beat the Tigers for the second night in a row, staving off elimination from the College World Series a fourth consecutive time with a 4-3 victory that sends the Gamecocks to the best-of-3 final against UCLA starting Monday.
Christian Walker homered and singled in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning for South Carolina, and he made a big defensive play at first base to end the game.
“A couple days ago we were down to one strike and planning a trip home,” Gamecocks Coach Ray Tanner said. “Now we’re going to have a chance to play for a national championship. That’s incredible. It’s a never-say-die team.”
Only 130 miles separate the campuses of Clemson and South Carolina, and they’ve met 292 times on the baseball field since 1899. No matter the sport, it is one of the fiercest rivalries in the nation.
Not much separated the teams Saturday. Clemson (45-25) had eight hits and South Carolina (52-16) nine. Clemson left nine runners on base, South Carolina left 10. Each starting pitcher went into the seventh inning and had similar numbers.
Clemson beat the Gamecocks two out of three games in the regular season and came to Omaha as the only non-No. 1 regional seed.
“I don’t think it matters who we lose to to end our season,” second basemanMike Freeman said.
“We lost to a really good opponent, that’s the bottom line. Regardless of who it is, it’s never fun to lose. So it doesn’t make it any worse. They’re going to represent our region, represent our state well. All we can do now is cheer for them in the end and hope they bring it back for South Carolina.”
The Gamecocks, threetime national runners-up, last played for the title in 2002 after knocking Clemson out of the CWS.
They’ll play for it all after battling back from a 4-3 loss to Oklahoma in its CWS opener. The Gamecocks rode an eight-run second inning to an 11-4 victory over Arizona State, then beat Oklahoma 3-2 in 12 innings, rallying for two runs after being down to their last strike.
They set up a second Bracket 2 final with Friday’s5-1 victory over Clemson in which Michael Roth, who usually comes out of the bullpen to face one or two batters, pitched a completegame, three-hitter in his first start in 14 months.
Walker broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh after Clemson intentionally walked Jackie Bradley, who had knocked in nine runs in four CWS games. Walker sent Alex Frederick’s 3-1 pitch up the middle, scoring Evan Marzilli from third base.
Adrian Morales followed with a single through the right side to put South Carolina up 4-2.
“They walked Jackie before me, so I wanted to prove myself in that situation to show I could get the job done,” Walker said.
Gamecocks reliever Matt Price (4-1) allowed one run in 1 2 /3 innings. Clemson’s Casey Harman (8-4) took the loss.
Sports, Pages 31 on 06/27/2010