South Carolina endures more late-inning heartbreak in 6th straight loss

South Carolina is growing closer to getting back in the win column. But in a conference like the SEC, where the margin for error is razor thin, little mistakes have kept its current losing skid going.

Just nine outs away from a win that would’ve snapped a five-game skid and evened the series with No. 1 Tennessee, more late-inning struggles kept them from doing so. The Gamecocks allowed four runs in the final two innings in a 7-5 loss to the Vols on Saturday.

“Just unbelievably gut-wrenching, heartbreaking loss against a great team, number one team in the country, defending national champions,” head coach Paul Mainieri said. “I thought that we played a great game virtually in every phase, and it just wasn’t enough.”

Normally reliable out of relief, Brandon Stone made a few big mistakes in his return to the bullpen after starting the past two weekends. After pitching a scoreless seventh, he served up a two-run homer to Andrew Fischer, which came with two outs in the eighth.

Then, in the ninth, right after South Carolina (17-11, 1-7 SEC) battled back to tie the game at five, Stone gave up another two-run homer, this time off the bat of Cannon Peebles. Over three innings of work, he allowed four runs on four hits with two strikeouts. This came after Jarvis Evans Jr. pitched six strong innings of three-run ball in his start on Saturday.

“(Stone is) a sinker ball pitcher and left probably a couple pitches up a little higher than he probably could have. And they hit him out of the park,” Mainieri said. “If you slip up just a tad, they can take advantage of it, especially when it’s not a big ballpark. … But if you throw the ball over the plate, sometimes they’re going to hit it. And I’d rather him hit it than him walk him. I thought he competed as hard as he could. Except for a couple of swings, he did a great job.”

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Before Tennessee reclaimed the lead for good, the Gamecock offense came back from an early three-run deficit. They got on the board in the fourth as Jase Woita hit a 3-2 pitch out for a solo homer. Then, with the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth, the bats brought home two more runs on a sacrifice fly by Henry Kaczmar and an RBI groundout by Nathan Hall to tie the game.

South Carolina took its first lead of the day in the sixth after Jordan Carrion reached on a fielder’s choice. Initially, it looked like he had hit a line drive out, but Vols’ second baseman Dean Curley dropped the ball and got a force out at second. But this allowed Kennedy Jones to score from third to take the lead.

Even after Stone blew the lead in the eighth, the Gamecocks quickly responded in the bottom half of the inning. Beau Hollins, who went 4-for-4, ripped an RBI single into right as Evan Stone, who pinch-ran for Jones, barely beat a tag at home plate to tie the game once again.

“I mean, I was just trying to get something, get the job done early, and get a pitch I can hammer, get a run in,” Hollins said. “It felt good, but we got some work to do tomorrow. We’re gonna get back out there and give it all.”

They outhit Tennessee for the second straight game, with 11 hits, one for extra bases on Woita’s home run. Despite their best efforts, it still wasn’t enough to win in the end. Their losing streak moves to six after a game in which Mainieri felt they gave it all they had.

“We played them tooth and nail the whole game, and thought we had them. But like I told the team, the wonderful thing, and also the difficult thing about baseball is, you know, the clock doesn’t run out on you,” he said. “You get 27 outs. You’ve got to get them out 27 times. They can’t run out the clock on you either — you get your 27 outs. And today we just came up a little bit short. Just heartbroken for the kids.”

Up next: Tennessee will go for the series sweep on Sunday as the Gamecocks will try to snap a six-game losing streak. First pitch was originally scheduled for 5 p.m. but has been moved to noon on SEC Network. South Carolina has yet to name a starting pitcher.

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