June 19, 2011

CWS Scores & Schedule

Wingo leads South Carolina past Texas A&M

By Jimmy Jones

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

OMAHA, Neb. - Scott Wingo's walk-off single off the wall in right off of Nick Fleece in the bottom of the ninth inning to score Robert Beary gave defending national champion South Carolina a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over Texas A&M on Sunday night in the most exciting game of the College World Series so far.

It started as if the sellout crowd was going to be treated to the first high-scoring game of the weekend as the two teams combined for eight runs in the first inning. But the highly anticipated pitching duel between Michael Roth and Ross Stripling, who combined for 27 wins between them during the season, turned into just that for both squads as the two aces registered zeroes on the board for the ensuing seven innings until Wingo's heroics.

"I know I needed to come up big there and I just tried to go out there and put a good swing on it," Wingo said.  "I took that first pitch. I was mad at myself, I could have drove that pretty well.  When I had two strikes, I went out there and battled."

The Aggies (47-21) drew first blood with four unearned runs off Roth in the top of the first with Brandon Wood's two-out, three-run triple inflicting the most damage.

The Gamecocks (51-14) bounced right back with four of their own in the bottom of the frame. Evan Marzilli led off with a walk, and Wingo and Christian Walker followed with singles to load the bases with no outs.
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Marzilli scored the first run on a balk, the first of the year for Stripling, then a throwing error by second baseman Andrew Collazo plated two more runs. Peter Mooney's two-out single scored Adrian Morales with the Gamecocks' fourth run of the inning.

"We were able to score four runs, got the big hit out of Brandon Wood and felt like we were going to roll," Aggies coach Rob Childress said. "And just like that the nerves got to us a little bit and we made some mistakes, just like they did in the top of the first and here comes South Carolina right back to it."

Roth, a Cleveland Indians draft choice, was lifted in the eighth inning after throwing 124 pitches. He allowed four hits and four unearned runs while walking five and fanning eight in 7.1 innings. The 13-game winner extended his streak to 37.1 innings without allowing an earned run as he lowered his season ERA to a miniscule 0.97.

"He gave us a chance to win," Gamecocks coach Ray Tanner said. "And that's all you can ask after a dismal start."

Stripling (14-2) threw eight complete innings, allowing seven hits and four runs, two earned, with one walk and six strikeouts. He threw 114 pitches.

Matt Price (6-3) picked up the win while facing just two hitters.

The Gamecocks will play in the winners bracket game on Tuesday night against top-ranked Virginia at 6 p.m. CT.

The loss drops the Aggies into the elimination round against Cal (37-22) on Tuesday at 1 p.m. CT.