Baseball Advances to Winner's Bracket with SEC Tournament Win over Arkansas

HOOVER  – The University of South Carolina baseball team advanced to the winner’s bracket of the 2024 SEC Tournament with a 6-5 win over Arkansas Wednesday afternoon (May 22) at the Hoover Met. The Gamecocks are 2-0 in the SEC Tournament for the first time since 2004.

Carolina opened the scoring in the top of the first as Parker Noland singled to score Blake Jackson. Arkansas answered with a run in the second, but Carolina went up 2-1 on Messina’s RBI single.

Tied at two in the top of the fifth, Cole Messina homered to straightaway center field, a two-run shot that gave the Gamecocks a 4-2 lead. Arkansas tied it in the seventh but Messina’s second two-run home run to center put Carolina up 6-4. Arkansas got the tying run to third in the bottom of the ninth but Garrett Gainey induced a fly out to center to end the game.

Messina was 3-for-4 with five RBI in the win while Jackson scored three runs. Gainey earned the win in relief, striking out three and allowing a run and four hits in three innings. Eli Jones had three strikeouts in 3.1 innings while Ty Good had three strikeouts in 2.2 innings of relief.

POSTGAME NOTES

• Carolina has started 2-0 in SEC Tournament play for the first time since 2004, when the Gamecocks went 4-0 to win the title.
• Messina is 6-for-8 with four runs scored, three home run and eight RBI in the two SEC Tournament games.
• Carolina defeated Arkansas in the SEC Tournament for the first time since 2004.

UP NEXT
Carolina will face No. 11 seed LSU Thursday afternoon (May 23) at 5:30 p.m. EDT (4:30 p.m. CDT) at the Hoover Met in the winner’s bracket game. The game will be televised on SEC Network.