Walks, errors doom South Carolina in game three loss to Vanderbilt

Issuing walks and making errors typically find ways to hurt teams and South Carolina found that out the hard way Sunday. 

The Gamecocks gave up a go-ahead walk paired with a game-changing error in the sixth inning of Sunday’s rubber match to Vanderbilt. 

Those miscues led to a three-run inning in what ultimately became a 6-4 loss while handing the Gamecocks their first series loss of the season.

“We’re 30-6. We’re not going to panic, we’re not going to change anything about how we feel about our team. Should we have played better this week on defense? Absolutely we should have,” Mark Kingston said.

“I thought that was the difference in the series. They played very athletic, clean defense all weekend. We did not. That’s something we have to continue to work on and evaluate.” 

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Like Saturday, things were also nip and tuck yet again through the first five innings, a one-run slugfest for most of it. 

After South Carolina (30-6, 10-4 SEC) tied things up in the sixth the pitching and defense let the Gamecocks down again. 

Eli Jones motored through two quick outs on just four pitches before the wheels fell off. He would walk the nine-hole hitter on a full count before giving up an Enrique Bradfield infield single into the shift. 

Jones would hit the next batter, his final batter, before Cade Austin came in and walked in the go-ahead run on just four pitches.

“Cade’s one of our guys and we’re not going to bail on one of our guys. We’re going to continue to show confidence in the guys we have. Cade is the number-one strike-thrower on the team,” Kingston said. “He just didn’t throw strikes in that situation. But we have to show confidence in our guys over the long haul. That’s how you have a good season. You have to show confidence and faith in the guys that can do it for you over the long haul.”

Vanderbilt blew things open after that on a two-out error from Talmage LeCroy that allowed two to score.

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Five of Vanderbilt’s six runs came with two outs while just four of those were earned, the lone one that didn’t was a solo shot from Bradfield in the eighth inning. 

Sweatt also got the nod against the top of the Vanderbilt order with Eli Jerzembeck, who had a perfect inning against that part of the order Friday, available.

“Jerzembeck had already thrown twice this week. We want to be very careful with young arms to ask them to do too much,” Kingston said. “Maybe if the score had been a little different at that point we would have made a different decision. But Wesley had not thrown and had thrown very well lately. Coach parker and I felt like that was the right guy to go too.” 

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South Carolina couldn’t just get enough going offensively, a top-heavy day where the Gamecocks couldn’t get much going in the middle and bottom of the order.

The first three hitters in the lineup–Dylan Brewer, Braylen Wimmer and Ethan Petry–combined to go 5-for-9 on the day with two doubles, a homer, one walk and three strikeouts while Petry drove in three of the four runs.

He finished with a pair of hits, while also hitting a record-setting home run. That was home run No. 18 for Petry, who breaks Justin Smoak’s 17-year record set in 2006. 

Petry did it in 36 games while Smoak did it in 66.

“Yes, I would say it’s surprising,” Petry said. “But at the end of the day, we lost the series and that’s all I care about. “

The No. 4 through 9 hitters in South Carolina’s order went 1-for-21, the lone hit a solo home run from LeCroy, with two walks while striking out six times.

“It’s baseball, guys. I know we want the bottom of the lineup to get nine hits every day but that’s not how it works. You’re going to have ebbs and flows. Today the top of the lineup got a lot of hits. That’s just the way it goes,” Kingston said.

“You have to tip your cap. That’s one of the best pitching staffs in the country and statistically, it’s the best pitching staff in our league. They were pretty good this weekend and got great defense behind them. That’s going to happen in our league.” 

South Carolina’s lost consecutive games for the first time all season. The Gamecocks now has to regroup before playing four games in five days starting Tuesday.

“We’re just going to bounce back. It’s a road series against a top-five team. I would expect to see them deep in the playoffs, even in Omaha,” Petry said. “It’s a tough loss but we’re going to bite our tongues and head back to Columbia ready to work.”

Up next: South Carolina is back at home in the midweek while facing Charleston Southern Tuesday at 7 p.m. 

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