South Carolina baseball drops below .500 with big loss to Vanderbilt

South Carolina came back to Founders Park on Thursday amidst a four-game losing skid looking to get back into the win column against No. 4 Vanderbilt but couldn’t get it done.

With the 10-0 loss to the Commodores, the Gamecocks drop to a 10-11 record and extended their losing streak to five games.

“It’s a challenge, you’ve got to have success. That breeds confidence and we’re struggling right now,” head coach Mark Kingston said of the team’s morale after the game. “Just got to keep moving forward, keep them as positive as we can. But we need to have some success so that they can build on that.”

Extending pitchers an inning too far, an issue that has plagued this South Carolina team all year, struck again in the loss.

Noah Hall got the start on the mound for the Gamecocks and pitched four no-hit innings to start the game. The fourth inning appeared to be off to a rough start when Hall walked the first two batters, but he bounced back and struck out the side.

Hall found himself in trouble in the fifth inning. Vandy was able to send nine different batters to the plate in the inning, collecting four hits and four runs.

Despite the big inning, head coach Mark Kingston praised Hall for his performance and how he’s performed this season in general.

“I have no problem with what Noah did. Six innings, three earned runs, that’s everything you can ask for him. He wasn’t brought here to do that,” Kingston said. “So the fact that he’s doing that on a Friday night against a team that’s 19-2, I have no issues with what Noah did today.”

While the bats were finally waking up for the Commodores, the opposite was happening for the Gamecocks. South Carolina was only able to tally six hits in the game, all of which came sparingly.

“At the end of the day, we’re taking good at-bats. We’re not striking out – our starters only struck out five times tonight – but we’re not impacting the ball enough,” Kingston said. “I hate to feel like we’re going from one extreme to the other. You know, last year was all power but a lot of strikeouts. Right now it’s low strikeouts, but none of the impact.”

Hall got back into a groove in the sixth inning, striking out his sixth batter of the game and giving up no additional runs.

John Gilreath took over on the mound for Hall in the seventh and the Commodores used the pitching change to their advantage.

It felt like Gilreath could never get out of the seventh, facing 10 batters in his sole inning of work. Five hits and five runs later, Vanderbilt extended its lead to 9-0.

After the game, Kingston said Gilreath’s command of his pitches isn’t where it needs to be.

“We need better than that from John. He’s been better than that. But we need consistency out of John,” Kingston said. “He’s been here too long to not be able to come in and he can give us three outs.”

Parker Coyne took over in the eighth inning and had similar luck to Gilreath. Coyne got two quick outs to start the frame but then walked four straight batters to bring in the Commodores’ tenth run of the night.

Jalen Vasquez made another appearance on the mound tonight for the Gamecocks. He threw five total pitches to keep three batters scoreless in the ninth.

Kingston praised Vasquez’s selflessness and his success during his pitching appearances.

“Every time he’s come in, he’s throwing strikes, he’s gotten outs,” Kingston said. “I think it shows if you just command the ball a little bit, you throw strikes and you give your defense a chance to play, then you have a good chance of something positive happening.”

South Carolina will look to bounce back and even the series on Friday night at 7 p.m.