Jack's takes from South Carolina's fifth straight loss on Friday
There have been a lot of tough and ugly losses for South Carolina this season. But Friday’s might be right up near the top.
The Gamecocks, after leading for most of the night, let a 3-0 lead turn into an 8-3 loss as Tennessee came from behind to pick up a series win.
Here are my takes from the loss.
Kingston left Gainey in too long
As of late, I really haven’t been a fan of some of the choices Mark Kingston has made with his pitching staff. And Friday night was no different.
After giving up a solo homer in the sixth inning, Garrett Gainey’s night was starting to come to an end. But Kingston stuck with him. I don’t blame him here, it was his first mistake of the night. However, where I do blame him is for leaving him in after giving up a pair of singles with two outs.
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In this situation, I would’ve gone to Chris Veach for a righty-righty matchup. Isn’t that what Kingston likes to do? He did it with Connor McCreery before he gave up a grand slam against Georgia last weekend. So why not do it here and hope for better results? Instead, Hunter Ensley clobbered a three-run homer into left to give the Vols a 4-3 lead. And then, Gainey’s night was over.
Too little too late, though. Look, I understand trusting your pitcher and letting him get out of his own mess. But sometimes, you have to do what’s best for the team and try to win the game, especially with the lineup up for a third time.
Let’s get to the other move Kingston made that didn’t pan out.
Should’ve used your best reliever instead of saving him
Allow me to lay out what’s at stake for you. Two runners on with one out in the seventh and Christian Moore, Tennessee’s best hitter, coming up to bat. What do you do here? Do you go with Chris Veach, your experienced reliever who has gotten in and out of jams before, or do you go with Parker Marlatt, a freshman who hasn’t pitched since May 4.
If you chose the logical answer, you would be wrong. After pulling Jake McCoy, Kingston and Matt Williams went with Marlatt to get out of the mess. Keep in mind, this was a one-run game. You still have a chance. But instead, Moore gets walked and Blake Burke hits a mammoth grand slam.
I actually think Marlatt has been one of South Carolina’s better pitchers this year. But you have to go with Veach there. Take the risk and get out of trouble to give the offense a chance. The only reason Veach didn’t pitch there is because Kingston wanted to save him for the final three to six outs of the game. Well, obviously after that, he didn’t need to use him.
These two moves completely backfired and cost South Carolina a chance to win. It’s just that simple.
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Offense didn’t do much to help the cause either
While Kingston’s decision-making wasn’t good enough on Friday, neither was South Carolina’s offense. After scoring three runs in the second, the Gamecocks did little to nothing the rest of the way.
They only had five hits all night, all of which were singles. They did hit the ball hard at times but it didn’t amount to much. Kingston thought they swung the bats well all night and had no issues with how the offense looked. And that’s another part of the problem here.
I get it, they ran into some good pitches and didn’t get hits when they could’ve used them. But to say all that after a five-hit game isn’t what I’m thinking. The top three in the order went a combined 0-for-10 with four strikeouts. Not good.
For as rough as Friday’s loss was, you’ve still got one more game this weekend to come away with one positive. Find a way to win and the feeling is a little better going into Hoover. But it would be a bad look to go into the SEC Tournament on a six-game losing streak.
