Tough luck, miscues late doom South Carolina in series-opening loss

The seventh-inning stretch started and South Carolina carried all the momentum.

The Gamecocks had just cut a three-run deficit to one and were bringing in one of their best relievers to try to hold things steady.

But that didn’t happen with Kentucky catching a few breaks and making its own luck en route to a big inning in a 7-3 loss Friday night.

“Sometimes that happens,” Mark Kingston said. “Baseball is a crazy game and sometimes that happens. Not much went our way tonight.” 

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Eli Jones came in and gave up five straight base runners with a leadoff single followed by a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt.

Kentucky loaded the bases after that with a bunt that squirted past Jones on the mound, then took a two-run lead on a walk.

Jones would get a strikeout but give up a high-bouncing ground ball over the head of Gavin Casas that plated two runs.

In total, Kentucky scored three runs while just two balls ultimately left the infield.

“If you look at the game, it was a one-run game going into the seventh and it kind of blew it open in the seventh with some walks, some misplays and what was it, a slash?” Gavin Casas said. “How many times have you seen a slash? That’s how it went today. We look forward to tomorrow to see what we can do.” 

A makeshift infield treading water with three everyday starters out tried but couldn’t muster enough in the loss.

“Look, we’re struggling right now a little bit because we’re banged up. It’s that simple. Guys are playing extremely hard,” Kingston said.

“I’m really proud of a lot of these guys that are doing whatever we can do to try and battle. When you’re banged up like we are you need guys to give it everything we got. That’s what we’re doing right now.” 

That was the story of most of the night with South Carolina (36-9, 14-7 SEC) miscues giving Kentucky offense Friday.

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It was a tough-luck outing for Will Sanders, who gave up four earned runs with a few odd plays also mixed in to get there.

The Wildcats scored in the first inning thanks to a two-out wild pitch from Sanders. Kentucky then hit an inside-the-park home run on a ball Dylan Brewer lost in the sun.

“The sun is really, really hard for the outfielders. You saw on that play we had no idea where the ball was,” Kingston said. “The ball was hit so high and by the time it bounced and rolled the guy came all the way around.” 

Things settled for Sanders until the fifth when he gave up a two-run homer to put the Gamecocks in a deeper hole.

Sanders finished a laborious outing by giving up four runs, all earned, on six hits while striking out seven. He’d walk three over five innings while throwing 54 of his 86 pitches for strikes.

His ERA is up to 5.75 this season in what’s been a maddeningly inconsistent season to date.

“Will was good enough to win tonight. It says four earned runs but that should be two. A wild pitch got away that we would normally block. That home run goes down as a hit. That’s not on Will,” Kingston said.

“He gave us a chance. It was a one-run ballgame in the seventh inning. That’s what you want your starter to give you a chance the last three innings of the game and he did that.”

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South Carolina was kept down early offensively, a solo shot from Casas being the lone scoring through the first six innings.

The Gamecocks would make things a game late, using three straight singles with one away–including an RBI knock from Michael Braswell–and a Cole Messina sac fly to make it alone run game.

Caleb Denny struck out to end the threat and South Carolina couldn’t get much going after that.

South Carolina now has to win the next two games of the series to avoid losing consecutive series for the first time all year.

“Teams that are 36-9 and 14-7 in the SEC have no business pressing. We’re playing baseball and we’re banged up,” Kingston said. “We’re going to come out tomorrow and compete. It’s that simple.” 

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Up next: Game two of the series kicks off at 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon. South Carolina will give the ball to Jack Mahoney (4-2, 3.91 ERA). Lefty Tyler Bosma (4-3, 4.82 ERA) will start for the Wildcats. The game will be on SEC Network Plus and also the Gamecock Radio Network. 

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