Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox talking game Cox baseball heats up in the SEC tournament. The tennis team season comes to a close, and the countdown for football is officially on. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:56] Okay. Welcome to episode 244 of Cox talking Game Cox. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And I don't even know. I don't even know. I mean, what a freaking rollercoaster of emotions. I feel. I feel like a bit. I'm in like a. In like a spin cycle. My brain and my heart and my soul is in a spin cycle. Thanks to the SEC baseball tournament. I mean, what a 72 hours or so for Gamecock fans. I mean, jeez Louise. I'm gonna get into the details, obviously, but it would be doing a disservice to not get this off my chest that it's just, ah, brutal. I just. I'm still just in a state of shock for what we just witnessed Thursday night.
[00:01:58] It's just sickening. And just yet, you just knew it. You just knew it was gonna happen.
[00:02:07] My soul is in a spin cycle. That's just. That's just what it is here. That's life of a Gamecock fan to a certain degree.
[00:02:16] Yep. So gonna get into all that in a minute here. Really. Today's episode, really focusing on the baseball tournament. So not a whole ton to go over, but couple of news and notes here. A little week in review for y'all here. Monday, we had both the men's and women's tennis teams. They were in action. The. There was the singles and doubles tournament. So we had a doubles representation in each. And unfortunately, both teams lost in their round. So men's team losing, thus ending their season. Same goes for the women's. Both teams failed to advance in the NCAA tournament and thus ending their season. So shout out to both teams. They had good seasons, they fought hard, and we'll see you next year. And then a fun little bit of news here. We are now less than 100 days away from Gamecock football. Wow. I mean, the team put that graphic out and I damn near fell out my chair. I did, because I didn't believe it. It's May. It's crazy to think of that. We're only now we're double digit days away, just a few short months away from Carolina football. And the closer we get, you're going to get SEC media days talking season, then we're going to be talking about schedule predictions and things like that. And before you know it, football season is here, and I'm probably going to say this a lot between now and then. Never want to wish. Time to go ahead. I love the summer. It's a great time to travel and all that jazz, but you wake me up when it's football season. I mean, really, it's so, so exciting to see.
[00:04:11] And we're on the clock. You know, we got some things to do. You're seeing all the content now that the team is putting out with mic'd up. They started with Jody Camillus and then Mike Furry. I think we got a couple good ones, guys. I really do. A couple new coaches. You see the energy they're bringing. You see the passion that they're bringing. I think you see why Shane Beamer felt comfortable bringing these two guys in to our program. And it's going to, going to be interesting to see the stories that come out over the summer. And then when we get into fall camp, right, who's developing? What are we looking at? How are we shaping up with the schedule and things like that? And then if you're really feeling froggy, you can always try and find some articles about some of the early season opponents, Kentucky, LSU, things like that to see how they're shaping up. That's really when you're like, deep, deep in it. And there's just not a lot of sports going on, like in the dog days summer here, but nonetheless, 100 days from Gamecock football or 99 today, as you're listening to this, so very, very excited here, but we got to talk about what's going on in Gamecock Nation and talking the baseball team as the yard Cox headed to hoover for the SEC tournament. And, you know, what's the word? I don't even know. I was going to say, like, all I can say is wow.
[00:05:33] But now it's more like, wow, seriously? Because it really just has been such a crazy couple of days here. I mean, this team rolled in, limped in, seemingly dead on arrival into Hoover after losing six straight games. I mean, the fan base was in disarray.
[00:06:00] All the beat writers were in disarray. I saw something that said, like, if the Gamecocks lost their opening round game in Hoover to make seven straight losses, it would have been the longest losing streak for South Carolina baseball since the Kennedy administration. I mean, like, we were in a bad place, and we can sort of chuckle at it now, but, like, we very much are in a dark place as a fan base, but maybe a change of scenery and a change of time zone or whatever is all the boys needed because the first two days of the tournament treated the Gamecocks extremely well. And whatever slumber this team might have been in, at least for these first two games, because we're going to get into the last one, seemingly, they woke up from it, you know. You know, and in fact, it's funny because it, those two days treated a lot of the underdogs well, as you saw a few favorites lose early in the first round. And then you also saw some top seeds in the second round also have struggles as well.
[00:07:14] And I mean, I do recognize fully that I was one of the voices who was very down on this team going into the tournament. But I think that regardless of what you thought about the team and its current state, what you think about the man in charge of this team, no matter what, like at the bottom line, y'all wanted. We wanted. I wanted to see the guys give it their all, and we wanted to see this team find success because it's frustrating as it can be at sometimes. And as, you know, interesting of a relationship as a lot of the fan base and has towards Mark Kingston. Like, you never want your team to lose. You're never rooting for that. You want your team to have success and then you figure it out later with who's in charge. Right?
[00:08:14] So to go out there and have a little success in a post season setting was very nice to see. And I think it's exactly the thing that our fan base needed, at least just mentally and emotionally for a little bit here. So going to go game by game here up to where we are at this point here, sort of a throw you up to only slam you down type of deal, because we all know what happened here, but nonetheless, how did we get here? Game one, South Carolina took on Alabama and won ten to five. Now, Carolina did the majority of the damage in the third inning, thanks to home runs from Gavin Cassis, Ethan Petrie, and then the grand Salami from Dalton Reeves. Really interesting to hear them say that. I think tournament wide, it's tied or maybe one away from the most grand slams in tournament history, and we're not even through, like, you know, the winners and losers brackets. So very interesting to see the ball is flying out of the yard in Hoover. But as great as that third inning was in this game, the story at a game one was Chris Veatch.
[00:09:33] Chris came in the fifth inning with Carolina only up two, and he proceeded to absolutely be fuddle the Alabama hitters. And through five and two thirds innings of shutout ball, I mean, he stepped up and delivered in a huge moment, doing more than he's done this season. He put the game on his back and he was able to look everybody in the eye in that moment, in this game and say that he has this.
[00:10:02] And I, for one, was incredibly impressed. The people calling the game on the telecast, they were incredibly impressed.
[00:10:12] He just really was in command of his stuff. He had an idea of what the Alabama hitters were looking for, and he was able to take advantage to the fullest extent. And Moose provided some insurance runs late in the game, and the rest is history. And in that moment, in that game, you could almost feel it through the tv, just the sense of relief that this team felt after that win. You could just see it just lift off of them because it was a tough stretch coming into this and they weren't playing like themselves, and it was frustrating. And so to see them go out there, put up ten runs, have one of their veteran pitchers step up in the moment, take the load off the rest of the guys, like, that's exactly what you wanted to do. And winning that game allowed Carolina to advance to the next round, which is game two against Arkansas. The Gamecocks would also go on to win this game, six to five. This game was back and forth. I mean, this was a very competitive game. Arkansas was one of the top seeds. They had that buy into this round, and they've been a good team all year, pretty much back and forth. But it was Cole, Messina, Moose, who was the man of the hour, the MVP, whatever you want to call him, he was the boost that Carolina needed. Moose gave Carolina a lead after he launched a two run home run in the fifth. And then after Arkansas tied things in the 7th, it was Moose, yet again who gave Carolina a lead after hitting another two run homer in the top of the 9th. Just an absolutely electric moment in the 9th inning to give the boys the lead. Very, very amazing from the pitching staff. It was really a nice day when everything was all said and done.
[00:12:18] Eli Jones got the start going three, one three, allowing two runs, one of them being earned. Ty Goode came in relief. He was solid. Gave up a couple runs, but he went two and two thirds as well. But Garrett Ganey was the definition of grit as he dug deep and went three innings to close the game and get the win. He fought through. He fought through some adversity there. A 9th inning push from Arkansas. But once again, he got that final out and you saw the emotion just pour out of him and pour out of the dugout. This entire team, it was just a wild, absolutely wild ride of emotions to stave off that team and then move forward in the winners bracket, which then brings us to game three.
[00:13:16] So if you turn this episode off now, I don't blame you. I don't. But it's my job here, as is determined by me, to bring you the highlights and my thoughts on this game here Thursday night, game three against LSU, who also was having a surprise run in the tournament. And in a soul crushing fashion, South Carolina lost the game eleven to ten.
[00:13:50] LSU scored two in the 8th and two in the 9th to complete the come from behind win. And I mean, just even saying it now just, it just makes me want to puke. It just does. Because we know who hit that. Oh, my God. I can't even say it. But to start from the top of this game, I mean, this was, this was a game where you had two teams coming into this game that were hitting the ball well. And when you're in this particular game, after playing back to back games, high stakes, you're really just in the back end of your pitching staff. Right? So it allowed for both teams to go on rallies where, you know, the hitters were hot. You're on your back back half of the bullpen guys, guys who typically pitch in the mid week. And you were just trying to find someone who could step up and give you a little bit of stability. So as that happened, both teams were scoring on each other. Hence the high scoring game. Really was a marathon of a game. Was a long one here. But Moose, yet again, was a monster. He hit himself a grand slam here and he drove in a few more. He has set a record for SEC tournament RBI. And there is still at least one more game to be played.
[00:15:20] Just words can't describe it.
[00:15:24] Moose, babe Ruth. Cole. Babe Ruth, Messina. The Moose is loose. Just such a cool moment. He is in the absolute zone here.
[00:15:35] But unfortunately, from Gamecock fans, all of that is now overshadowed after the team blew that late lead.
[00:15:45] And on top of it, it was Michael freaking Braswell who drove in the winning run and Chris Veech who blew the save. It was just, you had a feeling going into this game that Michael Braswell was going to do something against the team. He was pretty quiet throughout. You know, he made a really good defensive play. I think it was in the 6th inning. You're like, well, we took the lead. You know, can live with that.
[00:16:14] But, man, he got up there. And to have the game winning hit, the game winning RBI, is just unfriend, believable. It just makes you just throw your hands up and just say, like, what is this.
[00:16:27] You just knew it was going to happen. And, you know, when Kingston brought Veech in the bottom of the 8th, bases loaded jam, I don't think he wanted to bring him in the 8th, but you had to at that point. I was fine with bringing in Veatch in that game because he had the day off. He pitched a lot the day before, five plus innings. So maybe his arm was a little tired, but he did get that day arrest.
[00:16:59] He was brought in in an impossible position in the 8th, gave up the two runs. You're still up going into the 9th. So as a fan, you had to feel good about it. And in this particular instance, like the timing of bringing Veatch and like, maybe you could make the argument bring him in a little earlier in the 8th, but again, his arm was tired.
[00:17:25] But you're not going to turn to anybody else. He's been one of your closers this year. He's been very consistent. He had a bad outing.
[00:17:34] He had a bad outing. And unfortunately he blew the save and it's just a soul crushing loss.
[00:17:40] So up next for South Carolina, the guys will play Kentucky Friday afternoon. So there is still life after death to a degree. The guys can go out there, they can stay hot. They had success against Kentucky this year, and maybe you find your way to potentially get some revenge against LSU, but it really is disadvantage, disadvantages, whatever the word is to be playing today versus you get that day off. Had the team won this, but nonetheless, the team battled. The team was right there in a position to win.
[00:18:17] It's been a good showing in the SEC tournament, right? Just from the standpoint of this team needed life. This team needed a little juice. They definitely helped themselves. On a national standpoint, I think the conversation about hosting a regional is done. I think it has been done. But maybe you're at a two seed now and you can help yourself a little bit in a regional. But right now, this will still be a big challenge in this game against Kentucky, especially on the pitching staff. We'll see. Maybe see, you know, different guys, maybe Roman Kimball gets in there. I don't know. But, you know, hopefully the guys are able to dig deep and get this one done. But with that, y'all. That wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is Cox Gamecocks. Instagram is just the name of the show, Cox talking Gamecocks. And please, like, subscribe and review the podcast. I appreciate all y'all. Go, Cox.
