SEC Baseball Tournament: Gamecocks Call Mercy, Ripped by Mississippi State

The South Carolina Gamecocks played their first game in the double elimination round of the SEC Tournament, and it was not pretty. In fact, nothing about tonight looked like the team which won 42 games this season.

No. 5 seed Mississippi State beat No. 4 seed South Carolina 12-0 in only seven innings as the game was called due to the SEC tournament 10-run-lead rule.

Mississippi State got off to an early lead, with a run in the second after a very questionable call on a 3-2 pitch that created a walk, which then eventually led to a run scored. In the third inning, Montgomery seemed rattled and threw almost 30 pitches including back-to-back walks at one point. The Bulldogs were able to get two more across and were up 3-0 very quickly in the third, exactly the same score from a year ago when the Bulldogs went up 3-0 in the third and on to win 5-3. They then added another run in the fourth inning that started off as a walk, and that was the end for Jordan Montgomery (who took the loss as well).

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Things started to settle down until the seventh inning, when everything went wrong for the Gamecocks as they gave up eight runs. The inning included a three-run home run, a throwing error, and a barrage of hits by the Bulldogs. With Mississippi State up 12-0, the Gamecocks went down in order in the bottom of the seventh, which ended the game. They also struck out in six of their last nine at bats.

The Gamecocks struggled on offense most of the night, providing little support to the pitching staff. Grayson Greiner had a double on a rocket early in the game, but the team didn’t get much more, with only two hits overall. This was only the second time this season they were shutout, and only the fourth time in the past four seasons. And the bullpen had an unusually poor night, giving up eight of the runs scored, including Vince Fiori giving up his first earned runs of the entire season.

Earlier in the day, it seemed as though the Gamecocks caught a break when Kentucky surprisingly beat Florida, sending the Gators to the losers bracket. However, with tonight’s loss, the Gamecocks will play No. 1 seed Florida on Thursday afternoon around 1:30 to fight to stay in the tournament. Whichever team wins plays on Friday, and the team that loses will go home. Hopefully, the Gamecocks can shake off tonight’s loss to play more true to form against Florida to have a chance to play again, and especially to try and earn that national seed in the NCAA tournament.

The Bulldogs will play Kentucky in the late game Thursday night, with the winner moving on to the next round.

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SEC Baseball Tournament: Gamecocks Call Mercy, Ripped by Mississippi State 12-0 in 7

By Chris Carey | May 22, 2014