Tiger baseball signee soars in Byrnes' playoff rout of Blythewood

DUNCAN — There was a flyover of geese Monday night during the Byrnes High baseball playoff game.

Then the one they call “Goose” really soared.

Daniel Gossett, a Clemson signee, went 3-for-4 with a home run and drove in five while pitching a complete game and allowing four hits as Byrnes beat Blythewood 11-1 in the Upper State finals.

The Rebels (21-6) scored three times in the bottom of the sixth to win by the mercy rule on a bases-loaded single by Andrew Cleveland. They play again at 5 p.m. Friday and will need one victory to secure a second straight trip to the 4A state championship series.

The geese honked overhead in bottom of the first inning as the Goose waited in the on-deck circle. He stepped up to knock a single, and the Rebels scored twice for a lead they would not relinquish.

“It’s pretty common around here,” said Gossett, who was talking about the geese but could have been referring to his stellar performance.

It was a matchup of the future Clemson pitcher against a future South Carolina pitcher, Grayson Greiner, who was struck in the forehead by a line drive in the third inning and briefly knocked unconscious. Greiner lay flat on his stomach for several minutes while being attended to but was able to walk off with assistance. An ambulance soon arrived, and Greiner was checked. He stayed for the rest of the game and was then reportedly taken to an area hospital to be evaluated.

“I think he’s all right,” Blythewood coach Barry Mizzell said. “It was really scary. You hear about it. I’ve seen it happen one other time, hit a guy right on the nose. But to see a guy go down like that takes a little bit of air out of both teams.”

While emergency crews attended to Greiner, the Rebels had four straight hits off his replacement and scored three times to take a 5-1 lead. Gossett drove in two with a single and scored on a hit by Zach Bridgeman.

It seemed as though Blythewood might escape a two-on, no-out jam in the fourth as the Bengals got back-to-back strikeouts, but Gossett connected for a long home run to center field to make it 8-1.

Blythewood’s goose was cooked.

“He’s a really good player. We knew that coming in,” Mizzell said. “We knew we had to keep it close and, hopefully, get a hit here or there. He had a good breaking ball and throws a sharp slider. … We were semi in the game at 5-1, and then he hits that three-run home run on a mistake ball up high. He hit it out and came through.”