COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The weird year of injuries went to an entirely different level this week as senior Madison Stokes, one of the oft-injured players on South Carolina’s roster, was in a compromising position boarding the team’s charter flight. Stokes suffered a case of lockjaw and had no other alternative but to make the two hour flight with his mouth temporarily agape.

Stokes was taking a swig out of his water bottle when he was just about to step through the doors of the plane. A couple of teammates cracked a joke, Stokes laughed and then he couldn’t get his mouth to close. He sat on the flight before meeting with a Texas doctor who needed more than just his set of hands to work Stokes’ jaw back into place and functional again.

“I was going to be on the plane for two hours and there was nothing we could do about it,” Stokes said. “There was no reason to freak out. It kinda sucked, for sure, and I wouldn’t wish for anything like that to happen to somebody. That was the worst pain I’ve ever been in.”

Stokes has been hampered by hamstring problems this year. He’s broken his foot and his wrist in past seasons. While this may have been the worst pain he’s endured, it wasn’t able to keep him out of the lineup. Even though the Gamecocks went down 6-3 in the series-opener against the Aggies, Stokes was 2-for-3 with a home run.

Stokes’ solo shot that led off the fourth inning was able to draw his team within one. South Carolina would tie the score the next inning at three-apiece, but the Aggies came away with the victory.

“This team has dealt with a lot of crazy things this year,” Kingston said. “Stokes was obviously fine today, and we appreciate the doctor here locally who helped him. No one ever promised us it’d be easy but the game demands you keep pushing forward, and that’s what we’ll do.”

Following the game, Stokes said his jaw was still sore but “alright.” He wasn’t the only one playing through physical adversity, however. Shortstop LT Tolbert was ill and vomiting throughout the game. Left fielder Noah Campbell suffered considerable cramps that caused him to be removed from the game.

“A lot of guys really showed a lot of toughness,” Stokes said. “A bunch of guys knew we had to try to get the job done even though we didn’t feel too good. I thought we brought it. The score doesn’t show that, but I thought we brought it.”

Campbell was 2-for-3 with an RBI, which produced the team’s first run of the game. He left the game in the sixth inning as junior Danny Blair went in to play defense. Campbell was due up in the top of the seventh inning and Blair bunted in his at-bat trying to sacrifice senior Matt Williams to second base.

“He just had terrible cramps,” Kingston said of Campbell. “We finally got to the point where we had to get him out of the game.”

Friday is a new day for Campbell, so he should be fresh and ready to go against the Aggies as the Gamecocks look to level the series at a game apiece. Stokes is another day removed and the pain from Wednesday should subside even more. How well Tolbert feels, especially in the mid-90s Texas heat, is still to be determined.

It has been a year of weird injuries for the Gamecocks, but the team is fighting through it all.