Whit Merrifield had gone 1-for-9 with 1 RBI in the first nineteen innings of the College World Series Finals, this was a guy who had hit over .320 in the regular season and had made himself a ninth round draft pick. For Merrifield and his superstar teammate Jackie Bradley jr the Finals series had been one big struggle that every was becoming more and more frustrating for themselves and their fans. When Merrifield ripped a 2-0 Dan Klein fastball down the right field line to bring home Scott Wingo the teams stuggles with runners in scoring position were all forgotten, by bringing home the winning run Merrifield brought home the Gamecocks first major national championship and gave the magical Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium a fitting send-off after sixty memorable years hosting the College World Series.
The success the Gamecocks encountered at Omaha should not have been as much of a surprise, after all USC came a game away from winning the Southeastern Conference and finished the year ranked between 7 and 10 in the four major polls. Despite their success it never seemed conceivable to most people that the Gamecocks could actually win this thing, especially after looking so vulnerable in losing their first game to Oklahoma and then squeezing by the Sooners in an elimination game. When they did squeeze past the powerful Oklahoma team something happened to South Carolina. They began to believe. Having been carried for a lot of the year by outstanding sophomore Jackie Bradley and the pitching of Sam Dyson and Blake Cooper the rest of the team began performing. Regardless whether that was Brady Thomas’ game winning RBI against the Sooners, Bobby Haney having a brief offensive explosion or even Wingo working the work in the final inning of the season, everybody contributed.
In the Finals nobody contributed more than senior starter Blake Cooper who pitched twice on three days’ rest and seemed to be getting better every time he did it. Having thrown 97 pitches against Oklahoma and allowing only one run in 5.2 innings Cooper expressively asked Coach Ray Tanner for the responsibility of pitching game one in what would be his final college appearance. Cooper saved his very best for his very last. In the 136 dazzling pitches that came out of Coppers right hand only four resulted in a base runner while ten resulted in dominating strikeouts of a very disciplined offensive team. In opposition to the SC senior was UCLA sophomore stud starter Gerrit Cole who struck out 13 in his last start and looks even better than when the New York Yankees drafted him in the first round in 2008. In opposition to a genuine college superstar Cooper gave eight innings of one run ball and gave the Gamecocks the inspirational performance that can define a short series.
Then came the second game of the finals and one of the best games of baseball played in recent memory. It began with more wonderful pitching, first by Michael Roth and the second round draft pick Rob Rasmussen. By the way all three of UCLA’s aces will be big stars in the Major Leagues, Cole, Rasmussen and Trevor Bauer have all given performances of the highest calibre throughout the College World Series and the regular season. USC were given impressive performances from an all reliever group last night, with Roth starting and giving 5 innings or 1 run ball followed by Jose Mata, Tyler Webb and John Taylor not allowing the Bruins onto the scoreboard for 3.1 innings. After that it became a battle of closers, and they were two of the best. Dan Klein gave one of the bravest, toughest performances in the highest pressure situations imaginable. Unfortunately for the UCLA club Klein slowly began wearing out around 50 pitches only to be left in for 23 more and, against the rapidly emerging Matt Price of the ’Cocks didn’t stand a chance.
As Klein tired into the eleventh Wingo worked a walk for the ages with an at-bat of the highest quality, he advanced to second on Steve Rodriguez’s only lapse in concentration of the day for a passed ball and then got to third on Evan Marzilli’s sac bunt. That set up Whit Merrifield to indelibly etch himself into South Carolina and College World Series history. For giving Rosenblatt the send-off it deserved both UCLA and South Carolina should be commended and remembered regardless of whether they make it to the new stadium next year. With the end of the stadiums era comes the dawn of a new time in Gamecock history, and it couldn’t have been any better.
No comments:
Post a Comment