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Strong day of offense wasted as Auburn walks off South Carolina

imageby:Jack Veltri•05/09/25•

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KJ Scobey (Katie Dugan/GamecockCentral)

South Carolina’s offense did just about everything it could to win a game Friday afternoon. Most times, 10 runs and 17 hits would do the trick, but not when the pitching staff continued to struggle.

After fighting back to tie or take the lead not once but twice, the Gamecocks still came up short in the end. No. 8 Auburn won in walk-off fashion on a safety squeeze bunt to pick up an 11-10 win in the first game of a doubleheader.

It’s the fourth straight game in which South Carolina (26-25, 5-21 SEC) has given up double-digit runs. In the last five games, the pitching has surrendered 74 runs.

It was a strong showing from the Gamecocks, at least at the plate. Facing Auburn’s ace Samuel Dutton, who had pitched into the sixth inning in his last five starts, they rallied for five runs and five extra-base hits to knock him out of the game in the fifth.

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In the sixth, KJ Scobey put South Carolina ahead for the first time in the game with a go-ahead three-run homer over the batter’s eye. Matthew Becker got into immediate trouble in the bottom of the inning after putting runners on the corners with no outs. Auburn then tied the game with a sacrifice fly.

It would take two more pitching changes from head coach Paul Mainieri before the inning eventually came to an end. And by that point, the damage had already been done. The Tigers took the lead as Lucas Steele hit a two-run homer off Caleb Jones only five pitches into his relief appearance.

South Carolina continued to hang around, though. Henry Kaczmar cut the deficit down to one with a solo homer in the eighth. Evan Stone tied the game in the ninth with a sacrifice fly.

But after pitching two scoreless innings out of relief, Ashton Crowther got himself into trouble in the ninth when he plunked the leadoff hitter. In the first two games of the series, South Carolina hit nine batters.

Then, after a passed ball, a single into centerfield nearly scored the runner from second. But the Tigers would win it one batter later as Eric Guevara laid down a bunt that Crowther fielded but didn’t make a play on as the game-winning run scored from third.

Up next: South Carolina will try to salvage the series finale in game two of the doubleheader. First pitch is at 6:10 p.m. on SEC Network Plus.

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