Photos by Gamecock Athletics
FOUNDERS PARK: South Carolina dug itself an early hole it couldn’t crawl out of in an 11-7 loss to top-ranked Tennessee, Friday.
An errant throw on a would-be double play in the second inning opened the floodgates to five unearned runs for the Volunteers. Tennessee put up another crooked number with a four-run fifth, giving their pitching staff all the cushion it needed to claim win no. 24 on the season.
After falling behind 10-2, the Gamecocks clawed their way back, stringing together quality at-bats against Vols’ starter Liam Doyle. Doyle (4-1), one of the nation’s best lefthanded pitchers, features a fastball in the upper 90s and had held opposing hitters to a .144 batting average entering Friday’s game. USC put nine hits and five earned runs on the All-American southpaw, however, chasing him with two outs in the sixth and Tennessee leading 10-5.
The Gamecocks were poised to close the gap further with runners on the corners and Nathan Hall at the plate. Hall chopped a ball toward first base that took the first baseman into foul territory but the ball was ruled fair, making it an easy third out. A batted ball that doesn’t take its first bounce past the bag isn’t reviewable under SEC rules, thus ending the rally.
Despite suffering its fifth straight loss, USC’s lineup and bullpen did some good things, Friday. On the mound, transfer righthander Caleb Jones retired 13 of the 14 batters he faced and lowered his ERA to 1.80. At the plate, Jordan Carrion (4-for-4) raised his average to .391 and Henry Kaczmar (3 RBI) hit an opposite-field home run. Ethan Petry (.402) finished 4-for-5 and clubbed his seventh homer of the season. As a team, South Carolina put up 13 hits (.333) and scored seven runs against a team boasting the nation’s top ERA.
But with the level of competition rising over the last two weeks, all of the Gamecocks’ gaffes and shortcomings have been magnified. When you face highly-ranked teams like Oklahoma, Arkansas, UNC and Tennessee, the margin for error is slim.
South Carolina (17-10, 1-6) will take another crack at the nation’s top-ranked team in Game 2 of the series at 4 p.m., Saturday.
For all GAMECOCK fans this year has been an EMBARRASSTMENT!!