• Video: South Carolina visits Children's Hospital:
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To the average eye, it's a baseball taped to a fungo bat.
To the South Carolina Gamecocks, it's the “Avatar Spirit Stick.”
OKLAHOMA VS. SOUTH CAROLINA
Oklahoma (50-17) • Starter: RH Zach Neal (8-3, 4.65 ERA) • Top hitters: 3B Garrett Buechele (.362, 17 HRs, 65 RBIs), CF Chris Ellison (.333, 4 HRs, 32 RBIs), SS Caleb Bushyhead (.329, 6 HRs, 38 RBIs) • How they got here: Sooners lost control of second-round game against Clemson when starter Bobby Shore threw 14 straight balls. That set up a four-run inning, and the Tigers added two unearned runs that led to a 6-4 win that left Oklahoma facing elimination. • Trends: The Sooners have hit four homers in two games in Omaha, bringing their total for the season to 104. Opposing pitchers have managed to keep the damage to a minimum, though, as all four CWS homers have been solo shots. • Oklahoma will win if: The Sooners get back to their disciplined ways at the plate. Oklahoma coach Sunny Golloway recited a laundry list of his hitters' shortcomings in that area that led to the loss to Clemson and emphasized that they'll need to get better if they want to stick around Omaha.
South Carolina (49-16) • Starter: LH Tyler Webb (2-2, 4.28 ERA) or RH Blake Cooper (12-2, 2.92 ERA) • Top hitters: CF Jackie Bradley Jr. (.380, 13 HRs, 57 RBIs), RF Whit Merrifield (.331, 13 HRs, 40 RBIs), DH Brady Thomas (.328, 8 HRs, 28 RBIs), 1B Christian Walker (.314, 8 HRs, 48 RBIs). • How they got here: The Gamecocks rebounded from a 4-3 loss to Oklahoma in their opening game with an 11-4 mauling of top-seeded Arizona State. South Carolina jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the elimination game. • Trends: Bradley continues to swing a hot bat for the Gamecocks. He's 5 of 8 in Omaha as he's built his hitting streak to 18 games. He's hitting .458 during the streak. • South Carolina will win if: The Gamecocks are more efficient in the late innings than they were in the first meeting with Oklahoma. South Carolina left seven runners on base, including the bases loaded in the eighth and ninth innings.
— Steven Pivovar
Huh?
“I can't cross that line,” infielder and inventor Robert Beary said when asked to explain further. “It's kind of our little team thing, our team concept for the last six or seven games. We've had a lot of fun with it.”
Still, even the baseball illiterate can understand the message behind the Avatar Spirit Stick.
“We created it as a physical picture of what baseball is all about — bat on the ball,” Beary said. “If you don't hit, you don't win.”
The stick is a fixture with the Gamecocks. Certain players have given it a makeover by adding colored tape. The players wave it at a certain position to indicate a line drive or a home run.
Born during a 45-minute rain delay against Bucknell in the Columbia Regional, the stick has strengthened bonds between teammates, Beary said.
Much of the allure stems from the comeback the Gamecocks staged against Bucknell. South Carolina was trailing 5-1 heading into the rain delay but bounced back late to win 9-5.
“I was thinking, ‘What can I do to get this team rallied?'” Beary said. “So I took a ball to a fungo and I taped it up and I went around to all the hitters and said, ‘Hey, see this concept? Let's do it.'”
The Gamecocks haven't stopped doing it, and they will look for redemption in a Thursday elimination game against the same Oklahoma team they lost to Sunday.
And if South Carolina wins the CWS, the Avatar Spirit Stick might deserve a ring of its own.
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