South Carolina baseball limped its way into the SEC Tournament after finishing the season 4-11 over the team’s last fifteen games and losing four-straight SEC series. However, because of the Gamecocks’ strong start to the year, Mark Kingston’s club still finished in the top half of the conference and was awarded the 6-seed in the Tourney. The Gamecocks were “on the bubble” regarding top-16 regional host seeds, so a couple of wins in the SEC Tournament became imperative for South Carolina.
Wednesday brought a tougher challenge as the YardCocks met up with the LSU Tigers in the SEC Tournament’s double-elimination round. Eli Jones took the mound and was serviceable until Cole Messina left the game after taking a foul ball off the helmet. Without the captain behind the dish, the mighty LSU offense scored two more to bring the total to four off the right-handed Jones through 4+ innings. Nick Proctor struggled when he took over for Jones, allowing two inherited runners to score and two more of his own to bring the score to 6-1 in favor of the Bayou Bengals.
After a solo home run from Ethan Petry in the 5th, the Gamecocks had life in the 6th when they filled the sacks with Carolina baserunners. Two bases-loaded walks brought in a couple of scores, bringing the tally to 6-3, but a horrendous called strike three against Gavin Casas should have resulted in a third run. LSU used the momentum shift to get out of the inning without any more damage.
The seldom-used Jackson Phipps came on in relief of Proctor but struggled until Brett Thomas took over on the bump. Thomas didn’t fare any better as his time pitching was difficult, as well. Proctor, Phipps, and Thomas combined to give up six runs in four innings, and the score was 10-3 heading into the bottom of the 8th.
In a game that will be remembered by the fans for lots of poor umpiring, the Gamecocks didn’t execute enough on the mound to win against a good LSU offense. Jonathan French really struggled in relief of Messina, and the pitching staff had no rhythm with the Clemson transfer behind the plate. No singular Tiger dominated the box score on offense, but four different LSU hitters drove in multiple runs.
The Gamecock bats were fine but weren’t great situationally, a common refrain in recent weeks. LSU starter Thatcher Hurd was very good for most of his 5 and 1/3 innings, and reliever Nate Ackenhousen carried the load in relief to finish the game without allowing a run on almost 70 pitches.
The game ended at 10-3, and the Gamecocks found themselves in the SEC Tournament’s loser’s bracket. South Carolina baseball will play again on Thursday at 10:30 on the SECNetwork against the loser of the Arkansas/Texas A&M game.