In honor of the 5-year anniversary of South Carolina’s 2010 baseball National Championship, TRC is briefly recapping each game of the magical postseason run. Today we look back at Carolina’s first win in Omaha in 2010, a cakewalk over Arizona State.
On a sunny, lazy Tuesday afternoon in Omaha, South Carolina decided early on against top-ranked and top-seeded Arizona State that it wasn’t interested in going home yet. Jackie Bradley and Adrian Morales each homered in an 8-run second inning, and Sam Dyson’s pitched 7 1/3 innings of stellar baseball in the Gamecocks 11-4 elimination game victory.
While the ASU game proved to be an easy victory over a formidable opponent, there was still a considerable uphill climb ahead of USC. Clemson would defeat Oklahoma later that night, putting the Tigers firmly in the drivers seat in our/their half of the bracket. Meanwhile, Carolina would get a return engagement against OU, but this time with the end of the season on the line.
Even worse, Clemson could sit back and relax while the Gamecocks and Sooners exhausted their pitching staffs. Clemson would be fresh and ready for the winner of that game on Thursday night, knowing they would have two attempts to win one game to earn a trip to the CWS championship series.
For South Carolina fans the nightmare scenario was alive and well – be sent home by Clemson, and watch them go on to win the national title.
But first, we had to deal with Oklahoma.
Next: CWS Game 3 – Miracle in Omaha
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