With South Carolina trailing Florida 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Gamecocks right fielder TJ Costen rounded third and was heading home to tie the game on a hit to right field. Halfway there, Costen tripped.
Catcher Taylor Gushue received the throw from right fielder Cory Reid and threw Costen out at third to end the game.
“Somebody told me that he tripped,” Gushue said. “I didn’t know that he tripped because I was ready to tag him. When I looked up and saw he was pretty far down the line, I was just like, ‘Oh, this is pretty easy.’”
The Gators (17-18, 6-7 Southeastern Conference) took advantage of several Gamecock miscues as they extended their winning streak to three games with a 3-2 win on Thursday night at McKethan Stadium.
A game after scoring its tying and winning runs against Florida State thanks to errors, Florida was helped by shoddy fielding from No. 8 South Carolina (27-8, 8-5 SEC).
Right fielder Justin Shafer and first baseman Vickash Ramjit reached base on back-to-back singles to begin bottom of the second inning. Sophomore Josh Tobias then laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners. Gamecocks third baseman George Iskenderian’s throw to first went into right field, which allowed Shafer to score and Ramjit to get to third.
Two batters later, designated hitter Mike Fahrman singled to right, scoring Ramjit to give the Gators a 2-0 lead.
“Anytime you give good teams more than three outs in an inning, bad things are bound to happen,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
Florida broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the fourth with the help of more South Carolina fielding miscues. Vickash Ramjit reached base on a bunt single and advanced to third two batters later on a single from left fielder Harrison Bader. With Fahrman at the plate, Bader stole second, and USC catcher Grayson Greiner’s throw was off-target, hitting USC Chase Vergason’s glove and going into right field, allowing Ramjit to score the go-ahead run.
Bader took four extra bases on errors that eventually led to two runs against Florida State on Tuesday. Ramjit said opposing teams can never let their guard down when Bader reaches base.
“He’s a really fast player on the bases,” Ramjit said of Bader. “He goes all out all the time. … I took a step to read the throw, and after I saw it (deflect) off the glove, I took off.”
UF starter Jonathon Crawford was impressive in a bounceback performance. In Florida’ 7-3 loss at Mississippi State last Friday, Crawford lasted just five innings as he gave up two runs but walked five. Against the Gamecocks, Crawford gave up just two runs in 6.2 innings while striking out five. He walked two.
Daniel Gibson and Ryan Harris threw 1.1 scoreless innings in relief of Crawford before Johnny Magliozzi, previously announced as Saturday’s starter against the Gamecocks, came in to get the last three outs of the game.
O’Sullivan said he felt the need to use Magliozzi in the ninth because of the game’s importance but added that the sophomore right-hander would likely still make his scheduled start.
“He just wants the ball,” O’Sullivan said. “All the time.”
Contact Josh Jurnovoy at jjurnovoy@alligator.org.
Junior Jonathon Crawford warms up on the mound during Florida’s 3-2 win against South Carolina on April 11 at McKethan Stadium. Crawford and No. 3 seed Florida will face No. 2 seed Austin Peay in its first NCAA Tournament game on Friday.
