Gamecocks can’t get it done at home, drop midweek matchup to USC Upstate
South Carolina couldn’t get the job done on Tuesday night, falling to USC Upstate 9-6 in one of the team’s final midweek matchups of the season.
It comes at the worst time for the Gamecocks, who needed to start this five-game homestand strong to make any sort of at-large postseason case.
“Not a really good night for us, really good night for USC Upstate, so congrats to them,” Mark Kingston said. “We just got outplayed in all three areas tonight. So, got go back to work tomorrow, get ready for Kentucky.”
The Spartans came out hot, hopping all over starter Eli Jones with a four-run second inning.
Jones, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery and is on a pitch count, only recorded four outs before leaving the game with an injury.
Kingston said that it’s unclear what the injury is and Jones will need to be evaluated by team trainers and doctors.
Whatever the injury is, it wreaked havoc on Jones’ control in his short time on the mound. He walked two batters, threw two wild pitches, and hit a batter while giving up three hits and four earned runs.
The USC Upstate offense continued to pour it on even after Aidan Hunter took over pitching duties for the Gamecocks (24-23, 10-14 SEC).
Though Hunter held the Spartans scoreless in the third and fourth innings, they still scored five earned runs and totaled seven hits off him.
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Despite being down the entirety of the game, South Carolina still had several opportunities to mount a comeback but never did so successfully.
Jalen Vasquez had an RBI sac fly that cut the lead to three runs in the bottom of the second and Josiah Sightler cut the lead to two runs in the bottom of the fourth when he hit his 12th home run of the season.
The Gamecocks’ biggest opportunity came in the bottom of the sixth with the team down five runs. South Carolina loaded the bases three different times in the inning, scoring three runs and cutting the lead to 7-to-5
After that, the bats stayed cold and South Carolina was only able to score one more run in the game.
Now the Gamecocks will turn their focus to a crucial SEC series against Kentucky, one that could make or break their postseason hopes.
Despite the presumed magnitude of this coming weekend, Kingston said that the “game hasn’t killed us yet” and that the team doesn’t necessarily feel any pressure surrounding the weekend slate.
“There’s no such thing as pressure in baseball in my opinion, it’s opportunity,” Kingston said. “There’s a lot of things in this world that are pressure, getting to play baseball in the SEC should not feel like pressure. It should feel like a tremendous opportunity and that’s how we’re gonna approach it.”
