This World Sequence has one thing for everybody: Up-and-coming stars, clutch heroics, veterans hanging round searching for that long-elusive ring. And for those who’re like me, you already know a very powerful query of this sequence is: How can I make all of it a few South Carolina Gamecocks group from greater than a decade in the past?
That is fairly freaking cool!#Gamecocks | #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/qIozcOe4el
— Gamecock Baseball (@GamecockBasebll) October 29, 2023
On Saturday night time, Jordan Montgomery and Christian Walker took the sector for a World Sequence recreation collectively. For a second time.
On June 20, 2010, Oklahoma beat South Carolina in each groups’ first recreation of the Faculty World Sequence, knocking the Gamecocks into the losers’ bracket, one recreation from elimination. It kicked off a run of dominance the likes of which can by no means be repeated within the NCAA match.
Two days later, the Gamecocks tagged Arizona State starter Merrill Kelly for eight runs in 1 2/3 innings to outlive one other day. (This put up goes to be riddled with guy-remembering and 2023 postseason tie-ins, so strap in.) Two days after that, South Carolina performed one other elimination recreation, a rematch in opposition to the Sooners. Trailing 1-0 within the backside of the eighth, Walker — the group’s freshman first baseman and cleanup hitter — hit a game-tying single, finally forcing further innings. Oklahoma pulled again forward within the twelfth, however Jackie Bradley Jr. drove within the tying run within the backside of the inning, then scored the game-winner for a walk-off season-saving victory.
Carolina then needed to beat in-state rivals Clemson twice in a row in an effort to advance to the ultimate. Head coach Ray Tanner, working low on pitchers, known as on Michael Roth to make his first profession begin. Roth, Walker’s backup by day and a LOOGY reliever by night time, threw a one-run full recreation to take the primary recreation. The next night time, Walker went 2-for-4 with a house run and two RBI to place Carolina into the ultimate.
There, the Gamecocks torched Gerrit Cole and UCLA in Sport 1, and Whit Merrifield’s Eleventh-inning walk-off single gained the Gamecocks their first nationwide title in Sport 2.
It was a definitive second in school baseball historical past, the final recreation performed on the legendary Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, the final recreation earlier than the adoption of the much less energetic BBCOR bats. (You may hear how jarring the ping of Merrifield’s hit feels now; trendy bats simply don’t sound like that anymore.) It additionally opened the dam for South Carolina, hitherto a perennial also-ran, to dominate the NCAA match for 3 seasons.
The Gamecocks repeated the next yr, going undefeated all through the match (it’s potential to lose as many as 4 video games and nonetheless win the nationwide title) regardless of a pair shut calls. They began the Faculty World Sequence with a walk-off win, and gained two different video games in Omaha in further innings on opponents’ fielding errors. Bradley was rushed again to the lineup after struggling a wrist damage, and Walker broke his hamate bone within the semifinal win over Virginia. He stayed within the lineup, went 4-for-9 over the two-game championship sequence, and made the all-tournament group.
In Sport 1 of the championship sequence in opposition to Florida, Walker stole second within the prime of the Eleventh inning. Mike Zunino threw the ball into heart discipline, beginning a two-error sequence that might deliver Walker residence to attain the profitable run. (I’ve made liberal use of this screenshot of Zunino staring off into house in frustration over time as a method of demonstrating disappointment or disappointment. And likewise to harass Meg, who was an enormous fan of the younger Zunino, on the idea of his being each a Mariner and Italian-American. This picture is at the moment my avatar in FanGraphs Slack.)
On the way in which to the 2011 title, the Gamecocks set a brand new file by profitable their 14th consecutive NCAA Match recreation. They might finally push that mark to 22. By the point the mud settled, they’d rewritten the Faculty World Sequence file ebook. Nearer Matt Value held the file for wins and appearances, and was tied for second in saves. Roth completed his profession because the profession chief in Faculty World Sequence begins and innings (the latter by an enormous margin), and was fourth in ERA. And Walker completed with 28 hits, tied with Dustin Ackley for many all-time. (Sorry once more, Meg.) He additionally set a brand new file for putouts and was third in complete bases.
By 2012, a 3rd nationwide championship appeared like a stretch. Walker was one of many youthful contributors to the 2010 title-winning group, and that group of upperclassmen had gone professional: Merrifield, Bradley, Blake Cooper, Sam Dyson, and 2011 Faculty World Sequence Most Excellent Participant Scott Wingo. (So had Bryce Harper’s older brother Bryan, who had transferred in from the Faculty of Southern Nevada and executed a stint as a little-used aid pitcher for the Gamecocks.)
Value and Roth each obtained drafted in 2011 however elected to remain in class. They, together with Walker, led a group that featured six new beginning place gamers, together with three freshmen and two first-year JUCO transfers. These included future Detroit Tigers catcher Grayson Greiner, future Bachelorette contestant Chase Vergason, and a rocket-armed freshman shortstop named Joey Pankake.
Montgomery was the pitching employees’s greatest addition. Already a lanky 6-foot-6, he took up a spot within the rotation as soon as back-end bullpen points led Tanner to maneuver Value — slated to be the group’s no. 2 starter — again to a high-leverage aid position.
However, the Gamecocks gained the SEC East, and Montgomery obtained his first style of postseason motion when he took a no-decision of their first convention match recreation. (Vanderbilt’s Mike Yastrzemski drove within the profitable run on a squeeze bunt.) Montgomery’s first NCAA Match begin was in opposition to Clemson and each of Carter Kieboom’s older brothers. Montgomery pitched 6 2/3 innings to win that recreation and put the Gamecocks into the Tremendous Regional.
The profitable streak got here to an finish one step from the Gamecocks’ third Faculty World Sequence last. Arkansas sophomore ace Ryne Stanek, on the time thought of a frontrunner for the primary choose within the 2013 draft, shut down the Gamecock offense and left with a 2-1 win. As soon as once more, the Gamecocks needed to undergo the losers’ bracket.
A rainout the next day led to a midweek doubleheader. The Gamecocks needed to win three video games in two days in an effort to advance. Tanner burned Roth within the first recreation in opposition to Kent State, a no. 4 seed (equal to a no. 13 to no. 16 seed in March Insanity) that had not solely made it to Omaha however had simply knocked out Florida, the no. 1 total seed, as soon as they obtained there. Roth gained, as he at all times did.
That left Montgomery, a 19-year-old freshman, to face Arkansas in prime time. The Montgomery you’ve seen this postseason is the product of the mid-to-late 2010s Yankees pitcher improvement machine. His arm angle is greater, his supply a lot cleaner and far much less herky-jerky, and he’s throwing a number of miles an hour tougher than he did in school.
I used to be in a press convention in Baltimore throughout the ALDS through which Montgomery was requested who he’d realized essentially the most from as a younger pitcher. “I used to be CC Sabathia’s shadow for about three years,” he stated, and albeit you possibly can inform. However again then — and that is the best praise I pays a left-handed pitcher as a Gamecock baseball fan — Montgomery felt like the following Roth. He wasn’t overpowering, however he had nice motion and a number of avenues by which to assault hitters. And most of all he was extremely cool beneath strain.
When Montgomery threw eight scoreless innings in opposition to the Razorbacks on simply 89 pitches, scattering three hits, a stroll, and successful batter, the comparisons to Roth got here thick and quick. On the uncommon events Arkansas put a runner on base, he didn’t keep there lengthy: Montgomery induced two double performs, and had two different baserunners thrown out. He didn’t throw a single pitch with a runner in scoring place all night time. The 2 future large leaguers within the Arkansas lineup, Brian Anderson and Matt Reynolds, went a mixed 0-for-5 with 4 strikeouts in opposition to the freshman lefty. Additionally, Walker went 2-for-4 in his third-to-last school recreation.
It might’ve been the begin to a legendary postseason profession for Montgomery, however circumstances didn’t line up as properly for his technology because the earlier one.
South Carolina gained one other squeaker in opposition to Arkansas the next night time to advance to a 3rd consecutive last, however there issues went south. For 2 days, Rob Refsnyder changed into Joe DiMaggio. After a blowout loss in Sport 1, Roth and Value held Arizona to a 1-1 tie coming into the ninth inning earlier than Value — who’d thrown roughly one million high-leverage innings out of the ‘pen over a three-season span — lastly gave up the ghost and allowed three runs within the prime of the ninth.
Walker led off the underside of the inning with a single, and the Gamecocks finally loaded the bases to deliver the profitable run to the plate with one out, however they couldn’t deliver it in. Two consecutive nationwide championships and a wheelbarrow of Faculty World Sequence information must be sufficient. Roth, Value, and Walker had been certain for the professionals, and Tanner hung up his spikes to change into South Carolina’s athletics director, a put up he nonetheless holds greater than a decade later. Tanner constructed up a lot goodwill throughout that three-year run he was capable of rent Will Muschamp and other people nonetheless like him.
As a result of Montgomery by no means gained a nationwide championship and solely made one Faculty World Sequence begin, he doesn’t get talked about in the identical breath as Roth and Value by way of postseason heroics, but when something he was even higher in playoffs than his older teammates.
Montgomery made 5 NCAA Match begins and went 5-0 with a 0.93 ERA. It might have amounted to extra. The 2013 Tremendous Regional spherical pitted the Gamecocks in opposition to a North Carolina group that had nearly been upset by Florida Atlantic the weekend earlier than, and in so doing had so completely abused its pitching employees the New York Occasions wrote about it.
Montgomery gained his begin in opposition to the Tar Heels, however a pair of rainouts purchased simply sufficient further relaxation for North Carolina’s beleaguered employees, and the Gamecocks went residence early. The next yr, Montgomery gained the primary recreation of the regional, however misplaced to Maryland the next night time to place them within the place they’d confronted in Omaha in 2012: Win three straight video games in two days, or it’s throughout.
That Maryland recreation featured a name for Griener to sacrifice bunt that I’m nonetheless pissed about 9 years later, and one other managerial misstep price them. Freshman phenom Wil Crowe (I promise, Pirates followers, he was superior in school) was known as to start out in opposition to no. 4 seed Campbell, burning Carolina’s final weekend starter earlier than the 2 do-or-die video games in opposition to a a lot harder Maryland group. Crowe threw a complete-game shutout, and hours later the Gamecocks went with a bullpen recreation and misplaced 10-1. (Maryland ended up shedding to Josh Sborz and the Virginia Cavaliers within the supers.)
Maybe issues would’ve labored out in a different way had Tanner’s final nice recruit made it to campus. The jewel of the freshman class of 2013 was speculated to be a left-handed hitting infielder from North Carolina. However when the Dodgers took him within the first spherical and went greater than 20% over slot to signal him, any hope of his going to school evaporated.
Montgomery did finally get to play alongside this prized recruit: Corey Seager. But when they do win a title collectively, they’ll must accept it coming on the skilled degree.
Clutch performances on the school degree are nearly fully devoid of predictive worth in relation to skilled success. However each ballplayer has a narrative. Walker and Montgomery had been mid-round picks who took a very long time to show into family names and, finally, World Sequence opponents. However in a single particular nook of the baseball world, each had been heroes earlier than they signed their first skilled contracts.