South Carolina Baseball: Gamecocks Fall to Rival Tigers for First Loss

After a weather delay pushed first pitch back to 8:15, Gamecock Nation soon came to a sad realization: South Carolina baseball will not go undefeated in 2023. While every baseball team loses, the Gamecocks experienced their first loss in Friday night’s rivalry matchup with the Clemson Tigers, and the game went the Tigers’ way from the very beginning.

The Tigers led off their half of the first inning with a homer off the bat of Cooper Ingle, and they added a second run after back-to-back doubles. Insurance runs were added in the second, third, and sixth before the Gamecocks finally got on the board in the seventh to make it 5-1.

Starter Will Sanders and the Gamecock defense were not at the top of their games early on as Sanders gave up 9 hits and a walk during 6 innings of work, and the defense made an error, had a costly passed ball, and probably should have been credited with another error. Sanders did strike out 9 Tigers but gave up 5 extra-base hits.

The Gamecock offense didn’t string together multiple hits in an inning until the seventh. They scored one run that inning but missed the chance to tack on any others as Carson Hornung got rung up looking, and Dylan Brewer grounded into a double play. Eli Jerzembeck added two perfect innings of relief in which he struck out four Tigers.

Both defenses struggled (Clemson made four errors, and South Carolina made two) as playing conditions were not ideal. The ground was damp from the rain earlier in the day, and the wind came and went some during the night. The Gamecocks also saw their home run streak end as they had previously hit at least one home run in every game of the season before Friday.

The Gamecocks added a run on a sacrifice fly in the ninth and mounted a small threat after that, but the Tigers’ Casey Talent closed things out to secure the 5-2 victory for the home team.

Game 2 of the series will move thirty minutes east to Fluor Field in Greenville. Noah Hall will be on the mound for South Carolina, and freshman Tristan Smith will make his first career start for the Tigers. The game will be broadcast on the SECNetwork+ and the ESPN App at 1:00.