South Carolina Baseball: Gamecocks bounced from SEC Tournament, hopeful for regional host seed
By Kevin Miller
The SEC Tournament has not been a kind place for the South Carolina Baseball program in recent history. Coming into the 2023 Tourney, the Gamecocks had not won a game in Hoover, Alabama since 2017 and hadn’t won before that since winning once in 2012. Carolina fans were hopeful the bad juju of Hoover was no longer in play after Mark Kingston’s club smacked Georgia around in the opening round by a score of 9-0.
However, the old SEC Tournament woes resurfaced after the victory over the Bulldogs. South Carolina fell 10-3 to LSU on Wednesday and was not good on Thursday against a Texas A&M Aggies team that is barely going to make the NCAA Tournament field.
Starting pitcher Jack Mahoney was sharp early for the Gamecocks as the right-handed hurler gave up one run through 3 innings (the one-run scored with two outs on a ball that only fell to the turf from Evan Stone’s glove when the centerfielder crashed into the wall after making a great running catch). Things fell apart a bit for Mahoney as A&M crossed home plate three times in the 4th inning.
Matthew Becker relieved Mahoney and allowed just one run (unearned after a strike-three passed ball) over three innings, and Chris Veach pitched a scoreless frame.
The bigger problem for the Gamecocks on this day was the offense. Facing off against freshman Justin Lamkin and his 6.39 ERA, Carolina managed only one hit through 7 innings of scoreless ball. Chris Cortez loaded the bases in the 8th, but Matt Dillard slammed the door with a strikeout of Gavin Casas and held the Gamecocks off in the 9th to secure the shutout. The shutout was Carolina’s second scoreless outing in their last six games.
The Gamecocks’ SEC Tournament run comes to an end with a whimper as Carolina remains on the NCAA regional host site bubble.
D1Baseball released a projection earlier in the day that saw Columbia, South Carolina as the 15th-overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, which would be good enough for the Gamecocks to host the regional. The NCAA Tournament selection show will be broadcast at 12:00 noon on Monday, May 29th on ESPN2. Because of the early exit from the SEC Tourney, the Gamecock pitching staff will be on full rest for the regional.