South Carolina Baseball: Game 3 officially canceled, Gamecocks and Tigers split weather-affected series
By Kevin Miller
After a big mid-week shutout over a ranked North Carolina Tar Heel squad on Tuesday, the South Carolina baseball team welcomed the LSU Tigers to Columbia for a Thursday-Saturday series that was the biggest three-game set of the college baseball season up to this point. Gamecock fans were rabid for the weekend as all three games were sold out.
Unfortunately, some complications arose that put a damper (literally) on the matchup. First, and most obvious, was the weather. The forecast wasn’t good for baseball as Saturday was projected as 100% of rain all day, Friday had high chances most of the day, and Thursday had some evening projections for rain.
The second complication was the South Carolina pitching staff. Will Sanders was skipped last weekend against Mississippi State as a means of resetting him after a subpar start to the season, Noah Hall tweaked his back, and the weekend schedule provided no favors for a team trying to scrape things together on the mound.
Because of the Thursday, Friday, Saturday format, the Gamecocks originally announced a rotation of Sanders (Thursday), Mahoney (Friday), and TBA (Saturday) as Hall was going to be unable to go and both Matthew Becker and Eli Jerzembeck threw three innings a piece on Tuesday. However, with the weather coming in, things got even more difficult as the Saturday contest got moved to Friday as part of a doubleheader.
Game 1 on Thursday was a lot of fun for South Carolina baseball fans. The Gamecocks got to Paul Skenes early and chased the nation’s top starting pitcher much earlier than LSU fans would have hoped. Once he left the game, the Carolina offense exploded. Ethan Petry hit two home runs on the night, including a grand slam, to bring his total to a tie for the team lead at 15. He drove in 8 runs, and the Tigers just couldn’t keep up as the ‘Cocks took the opener 13-5. Braylen Wimmer and Dylan Brewer also added homers, and James Hicks was credited with the win.
Game 2 was moved up to earlier in the day and seemed to be a continuation of the beatdown from the night before. The Gamecocks had a 4-0 lead and a 7-3 lead at different points of the matchup, but the LSU bats wouldn’t go away. The big blow came in the top of the 8th inning when Gamecock reliever Cade Austin loaded the bases and looked shaken. Austin stayed in the game and promptly gave up a game-tying grand slam to Gavin Dugas, and all the energy in Founders Park was gone. The Tigers scored again in the top of the ninth on a Cade Beloso single to win 8-7.
Game 3 was originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Then it was moved to Friday evening. Then it was moved back to Saturday afternoon. Then there was talk about it being moved to Saturday evening. It was eventually canceled as the weather would not relent. College baseball’s biggest series of the year would end in a tie.
Despite an even result against the top-ranked team in the country, the Gamecocks leave this series disappointed. A dominant game 1 win seemed to carry over into a repeat performance in game 2, but a bad top of the 8th squashed Carolina’s hopes for a series win. With a 2-0 victory in the series, the Gamecocks might have moved up to #1 in the polls and put themselves in the lead position for being one of the 8 national super regional hosts. Instead, a blown victory in game 2 will likely leave the Gamecocks still looking up at LSU, Florida, and Vanderbilt in the polls.
There are plenty of positives to take away from the weekend, however. Freshman Ethan Petry continued his dominance as the youngster somehow just gets better and better. Will Sanders looked much sharper than he did pre-reset and looks ready to contribute in the Gamecocks’ rotation the rest of the way. Chris Veach and James Hicks both resumed their great work out of the bullpen, Michael Braswell continued his solid play subbing in for the injured Will McGillis at second base, and third baseman Talmadge LeCroy started heating up with five hits in the series.
The Gamecocks will look to keep building after the big weekend as they take on USC-Upstate on Tuesday (7:00 on SECNetwork+ and ESPN App) and travel to Vanderbilt next weekend for another huge matchup (Friday-Sunday; 7:00, 3:00, and 2:00 all on the SECNetwork+ and ESPN App).