South Carolina College World Series
South Carolina has won the College Baseball World Series in a 2-1 walk-off victory over the Vegas favorite, UCLA.
Whit Merrifield drove in the winning run with one swing of the baseball bat in the bottom of the 11th inning with Scott Wingo scoring the final run. Matt Price picked up the win with 2.2 innings of work, racking up three strikeouts and only one hit.
South Carolina was down 1-0 going into the 8th inning when Robert Beary pinch-ran for Brady Thomas, who went on to pick up a pinch-hit single. Beary advanced to second on a groundball out, then scored all the way from second a fielding error to tie the baseball game.
Neither team would score in the ninth inning, so the game that would decide the champion of college baseball for 2010 went into extras. An uneventful 10th ensued, and then came the 11th inning.
Price pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 11th, striking out the last batter looking. Wingo walked to lead off the bottom of the inning, advanced to second on a passed ball, and then to third on a sacrifice bunt.
Merrifield’s final at-bat won the game, and only seconds later the South Carolina Gamecocks out of the SEC were building the traditional baseball player dog pile in the middle of the field.
A fitting ending to a stellar season of College Baseball – one heck of a baseball game.
