South Carolina swept in Knoxville, ends regular season on 6-game losing skid

It was only two weekends ago when South Carolina was in the driver’s seat. As long as it took care of business and didn’t endure a huge meltdown, things would be fine.

Two weekends later, things couldn’t be any murkier for the Gamecocks.

Looking to avoid the sweep on Saturday, No. 24 South Carolina (33-21, 13-17 SEC) instead dropped the regular season finale to No. 1 Tennessee, losing 4-1.

USC will head into the SEC Tournament on a six-game losing streak.

[GamecockCentral for $1: In-depth coverage and a great community]

Rather than start Eli Jones, Mark Kingston opted to go with Dylan Eskew, who hadn’t pitched well in his last few outings. But the move worked as Eskew made it through two scoreless innings on 29 pitches.

“Eskew pitches the best when he starts. He’s just more comfortable there,” Kingston said. “That’s the thing, a lot of our guys, for whatever reason, some are more comfortable starting, some are more comfortable coming out of the bullpen. So that’s how we made those decisions.”

With Hoover on the horizon, Kingston quickly went to his bullpen and brought in Matthew Becker to pitch the third. He’d pitch a clean frame and get two strikeouts to open the fourth. But after a two-out walk, Tennessee took its first lead of the day on an RBI double from Kavares Tears with hit and run on.

Continuing the trend of letting his pitchers work one time through the order, Kingston called on Jones with a runner on first in the fifth. With runners on the corners and one out, he got a ground ball into the shift. But the ball skipped by Talmadge LeCroy’s glove to give the Vols another run.

One batter later, Billy Amick hit a high chopper to third base. It looked to be the final out of the inning, but Gavin Casas’ throw to first was off the mark. This would give Tennessee one more run. By the time the fifth came to an end, the Vols were up 4-0. And this showed the side effects of trading in more offense for less defense.

“I thought Eli was better. Again, we didn’t get credit for any errors there, but it sure looked like Eli had some tough luck,” Kingston said. “But I thought his stuff was better, still has to make some adjustments against lefties. But against righties, he was really good.”

[On3 App: Get South Carolina push notifications from GamecockCentral]

In hindsight, it didn’t really make a difference what the pitching did since the offense couldn’t get anything going. Picking up where they left off last night, the Gamecocks had no answers for Vols left-hander Zander Sechrist, who tossed six scoreless innings and struck out four.

After Tennessee moved to its bullpen, South Carolina finally got something going in the eighth. With two on and one out, LeCroy ripped an RBI single into left center to give the Gamecocks their first run.

Despite all of their struggles, they would have a chance to do some good with the tying run at the plate with one out. But these offensive issues weren’t going away that easily. Will Tippett struck out looking and Austin Brinling flew out to left to end the threat.

In general, it was a pretty abysmal weekend for a lineup that had been hitting fairly well. South Carolina only scored seven runs in the series, not nearly enough to be competitive.

Up next: South Carolina will head to Hoover to begin play in the SEC Tournament on Tuesday. The Gamecocks will know who and when they play by the end of the day on Saturday.

Discuss South Carolina baseball on The Insiders Forum!