The NCAA baseball regionals are fill of dramatic games, especially between a No. 2 and No. 3 seed.

Against James Madison on Friday, there was plenty of drama for South Carolina baseball.

The No. 2 seed Gamecocks (37-23) were down to one strike of hope left when Cole Messina, who was walked twice intentionally already, hit a game-tying two-run homer.

In the 10th, Will Tippett's sacrifice fly brought home Dylan Brewer for a walkoff win 8-7 over the No. 3 seed Dukes (34-24) in the NCAA Raleigh Regional.

"I felt like I just had to stay in the moment, be ready no matter what," said Messina, who added he was not surprised JMU pitched to him. "I can't pick and choose when they walk me, so I just had to stay locked in and stay focused and (I) took a good swing."

MESSINA'S HIT: Look: Clutch Cole Messina homer helps South Carolina baseball beat James Madison

Coach Mark Kingston expressed how difficult of a decision James Madison had when facing Messina in that moment, laying out both potential outcomes.

"There's a lot of variables that go into it," Kingston said. "I am just glad right now Cole Messina is so locked in."

"I think there was a thought to not give him anything to hit," JMU coach Marlin Ikenberry said of Messina. "Joe (Vogatsky) just left the ball too middle middle on him. ... You can go back and look back to say, 'Yeah we should have walked him' but now you're bringing the winning run to the plate."

The home run brings Messina to the top of Gamecocks leaderboard, tying him with Ethan Petry for the team lead with 21.

"He is the heart and soul of this team," Tippett said of Messina.

Kingston credited Messina for his leadership, how he leads by example and is always holding teammates accountable.

"When you are a coach, you are very fortunate to have a guy like (Messina)," Kingston said.

Messina's heroics follow a massive SEC tournament performance. Over five games, Messina was 9-for-16 with nine runs scored, had a double, four home runs, a tournament-record 16 RBIs and eight walks to go with three stolen bases. Messina had a grand slam against LSU and hit two home runs in the win over Arkansas.

Messina was named to the All-SEC tournament team. The junior catcher for the Gamecocks is having a career year, hitting .332, with 71 RBI.

"He's arguably been one of the best players in the country in the last month," Kingston said. "What I don't want to be lost today is that he threw three guys out at second base, which was incredible for the momentum shift of the game ... (Messina) did a great job at controlling their running game to give us a chance."

On Monday, after finding out their regional, Messina was asked about his hot streak, and the difficulty in keeping it alive game after game.

"It ain't easy," Messina said followed by laughter. "You just have to keep doing the same drills, same routines and hopefully it's still going on Friday."

Safe to say his hot streak at the plate is still going after Friday.

USC VS JMU: Cole Messina home run helps save South Carolina baseball vs James Madison in NCAA regional

Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Cole Messina: South Carolina baseball star delivers in regional win