South Carolina baseball: Gamecocks drop third straight series

South Carolina baseball lost two of three games to #4 MSU.

The South Carolina baseball team entered the weekend in search of a much needed SEC series win. The Gamecocks had lost five of six conference matchups over the last two weekends, and were beginning to see its hopes of hosting a postseason regional slip. Unfortunately for Mark Kingston’s group, a home matchup with fourth-ranked Mississippi State wouldn’t yield the desired results.

The Bulldogs jumped out of the gates early in the series, tagging Friday night starter Brannon Jordan for two first inning runs. Jordan would settle down after that, but he’d receive no run support, as the Gamecock offense tallied just three hits on the day. Mississippi State would break the game open on the South Carolina bullpen, and a 9-0 rout got the Gamecocks into another series deficit.

South Carolina is now 1-7 on the year in conference openers. This was the fourth straight series opener where the Gamecocks recorded three hits or less. South Carolina’s offense is hitting just .167 in these matchups, going a combined 43-for-258. In the Gamecock’s lone SEC opening win, South Carolina notched 20 hits, meaning in the seven losses, the team is batting an embarrassing .115.

Saturday was much of the same, as the Bulldogs scored in each of the first five innings to jump out to a 9-1 lead. Starter Will Sanders was pulled after just two innings of work, allowing five runs on six hits. The bullpen would stop the bleeding, and South Carolina would battle back to cut the deficit to just three runs, but the comeback effort was too little, too late. Mississippi State took the series with a 9-6 win.

Sunday, the Gamecocks picked up a much needed win, walking off the Bulldogs with an 11th inning double off the bat of David Mendham. South Carolina trailed in the bottom of the ninth, but pinch hitter Jeff Heinrich tied the game with a one-out double. Heinrich would also score the winning run on Mendham’s extra inning shot, as the Gamecocks battled back to avoid the sweep.

South Carolina will hope to use that momentum this week as they face archrival Clemson in a midweek matchup. They’ll also need to get back in the win column over the season’s final two weekends, which include SEC contests versus Kentucky and No. 4 Tennessee.

South Carolina baseball positioning for postseason play.

It appears that South Carolina’s chances of hosting a regional are done after dropping seven of their last nine conference games. The Gamecocks have to take care of business versus a Kentucky team that sits just one game behind them in the SEC East standings, before hosting Tennessee. Barring back-to-back sweeps to finish out the year, it looks like South Carolina will be a No. 2 seed in postseason action.