Offense struggles as Gamecocks swept at Auburn

Momentum-changing plays can happen in an instant, and South Carolina found that out the hard way Sunday afternoon.

Trailing by a pair in the sixth, Josiah Sightler belted what looked like a game-tying home run to right field. But, as the ball neared the wall, Mike Bello leaped and robbed him of a hit.

A tie game remained into a two-run deficit in a matter of seconds and the Gamecocks couldn’t recover, dropping Sunday’s finale 2-0.

“You’d have a tie ballgame there. All three games were really the same. We had a chance to win them all,” Mark Kingston said. “They sure as heck didn’t blow us out. We came here to win games and had a chance to win all three. We just didn’t. That was clearly a momentum swing because you had a tie ballgame there and anything could happen.”

South Carolina couldn’t regain momentum after that, putting just three more runners on base the rest of the way. Two of those came in the eighth inning with South Carolina led things off with two singles, chasing starter Joseph Gonzalez.

Leadoff hitter Brandt Belk struck out and Kevin Madden grounded into a double play to end the threat.

The Gamecocks stranded six Sunday and hit just 1-for-15 with runners on base despite tallying eight hits.

“Today hitting didn’t show at the level we needed it. Pitching did and defense did. But we just have to be able to score runs on a Sunday,” Kingston said. “He’s probably the best Sunday starter we’ve seen all year, but we have to still be able to scratch across runs. That ball leaves the yard, you do and maybe he gets out of the game quicker. It didn’t.”

South Carolina’s now been swept three times this season and twice now in league play. They did it in a game where the Gamecocks (19-20, 6-12 SEC) pitched well enough to win.

Will Sanders spent most of his outing pitching out of jams, tossing 86 pitches over five innings of work.

South Carolina’s righty only had one inning without a runner on base and Auburn largely made him work for every out he got. Of the seven hits Sanders allowed, four came with two strikes.

Both runs he allowed—an RBI double in the second and an RBI single in the fifth—came in two-strike counts.

He would do well getting out of most jams, though, and his final inning escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam with a double play.

“When Will comes out of the game with two runs, you’ll take that everyday of the week. Then Cade (Austin) came in and pitched well. We gave up two runs on a Sunday. That’s plenty good enough if that’s what your pitching and defense give you.”

But the offense couldn’t figure it out enough to lift South Carolina to a win. The Gamecocks had no answer for Gonzalez, who sliced his way through seven shutout innings.

South Carolina only struck out four times against him but kept pounding the ball into the ground. Eleven of his 21 outs via the groundout.

“Same thing he’s done to most teams all year. We knew coming in it was a tough match-up,” Kingston said. “He really likes to sink the ball and throw that slider. We beat the ball into the ground a lot today. He induced some big double plays. That’s what was really hard for us to overcome.”

South Carolina doesn’t have a midweek game this week and will have a few days off before hosting Alabama in a three-game series starting Thursday.

Whatever postseason hopes the Gamecocks had entering the weekend took a big ding with South Carolina needing to finish 9-3 over the final four weekends to get to .500 in SEC play.

“Realistically you can get in the NCAA Tournament in our league—because our league is so good—when you get to 13 or 14 wins. That’s still within reach. Based on having 12 games left, we can win enough games to be in consideration if we play our cards right,” Kingston said.

“That’s the message. There’s still optimism we can do that. Until we conceivably haven’t done it we believe we can and will work hard to do it.”

Click for Sunday’s box score.

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