South Carolina's struggles reach new low as Arkansas completes sweep

After experiencing two straight blowout defeats, South Carolina found itself in a position to salvage the weekend series with No. 3 Arkansas on Sunday.

The Gamecocks, trailing by two runs going into the seventh inning, tied the game on a two-run double by Will Tippett. Just like that, hope was alive and so was a chance to come away with a much-needed win.

But things quickly fell apart in the eighth as Arkansas scored seven unanswered runs to go from being locked into a tie game to taking a commanding lead into the ninth. The final nail in the coffin of a disastrous weekend from start to finish.

South Carolina lost 11-4 to the Razorbacks in the series finale, resulting in being swept for the second time this season. The Gamecocks (17-8, 1-5 SEC) are now 1-8 against top-10 opponents.

“I think the other teams are really good. I don’t know what else to say,” head coach Paul Mainieri told GamecockCentral. “The other teams are really good, and they’ve outplayed us in these games.”

Mainieri turned to his closer Brendan Sweeney to begin the inning. It had already been a busy day for the bullpen after learning Dylan Eskew had been scratched from his usual Sunday start. In Eskew’s absence, Jarvis Evans Jr. made his second start of the week after going on Tuesday and tossed three innings of two-run ball.

Tyler Pitzer and Parker Marlatt each pitched a pair of innings in relief, with Pitzer giving up two runs, one earned. Marlatt walked two but struck out one and kept Arkansas from scoring in his outing.

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When Sweeney came in, though, his outing came to an end before it ever really began. All three hitters he faced reached base. The right-hander surrendered a go-ahead two-run shot to Justin Thomas Jr., which proved to be the difference in the game.

“He walked the first guy on four pitches, and then his velocity wasn’t really what we’re used to seeing,” Mainieri said. “And the kid hit a two-strike change-up for a home run. Then he gave up a hit, and we got him out of there. Things didn’t get much better after that.”

Ryder Garino came in to try and clean up Sweeney’s mess but didn’t fare any better. The freshman right-hander gave up two homers, including a grand slam by Brent Iredale to blow the game open.

For as rough as the bottom of the eighth was, South Carolina played fairly well for most of the afternoon. The offense quickly jumped out in front with solo homers by Nathan Hall and Beau Hollins in the first two innings.

However, much like the other two games, there were a handful of blunders that didn’t help its chances.

After putting two runners aboard with one out in the fifth, the Gamecocks had a critical baserunning mistake. Hall, who had just reached first on a single, took off towards second base on what looked to be a stolen base attempt.

However, Will Tippett, standing on second, wasn’t running. Hall, already more than halfway towards second, was caught in a pickle and tagged for the out. Jordan Carrion then struck out swinging to waste a prime opportunity.

In the bottom of the inning, Arkansas broke the initial 2-2 tie on a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded and no outs. In the following at-bat, Cam Kozeal hit a potential double-play ball on the ground to Tippett. But on a weekend when shortstop play wasn’t good, he booted it and got the force out at second but nothing more as the Razorbacks brought home another run.

It was a sloppy series in general as the Gamecocks made four errors in three games. Tippett’s miscue wasn’t an error since it was a fielder’s choice. But it didn’t change the fact that the defense at the shortstop position was an issue all weekend.

“When you’re playing really good teams, you just can’t give extra outs,” Mainieri said. “There were some plays this weekend at that position that we would expect that we would make, and they weren’t made. It just made it a little more difficult for us.”

Right before Arkansas’ seven-run explosion, South Carolina did have a great chance to take the lead back when the game was tied at four. Once again, Tippett came to the plate with a chance to come through. But with the bases loaded and two outs, he swung at the first pitch and popped up in foul ground to end the threat.

The Gamecocks went 2-for-9 (.222) with runners in scoring position and 2-for-10 (.200) with two outs. In the series, they were outscored 35-9 by the Razorbacks.

Things don’t get any easier from here playing in four more ranked games this week. So where do they go from here after a weekend to forget in Fayetteville?

“Get ready to play North Carolina on Tuesday,” Mainieri said.

Up next: South Carolina will head to Charlotte on Tuesday for a midweek bout with No. 17 North Carolina. First pitch from Truist Field is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network Plus.

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