South Carolina Baseball: Gamecocks blanked in mid-week, play top-5 A&M next

South Carolina baseball followed up its series loss to Alabama with an embarrassing mid-week loss to the Georgia Southern Eagles.

The Gamecocks welcomed the 14-14 Eagles into Founders Park for what they hoped would be a "get right" game for a pitching staff that had given up 31 runs in their last four games and an opportunity to sustain some momentum on offense.

Neither of those things happened.

Freshman Eddie Copper had a solid 1st inning, but he struggled in the 2nd before leaving with what looked like a forearm/elbow injury (usually, that's not good news). Ty Good came in and surrendered a grand slam, completely sucking the life out of Founders Park as the Gamecocks trailed 5-0.

Typical weekend starter Dylan Eskew pitched after Good, making projecting the weekend rotation difficult. He gave up 1 run over 2 innings on a solo home run. Matthew Becker, Connor McCreary, and Parker Marlatt each pitched a scoreless inning. Jake McCoy had a scoreless 8th but was charged for 2 runs after he and Tyler Dean struggled in the 9th inning.

The Carolina offense was pathetic. Cole Messina and Kennedy Jones each contributed a double, but the entire team had just 4 hits in the entire game. The team's 3 walks all came in the same inning, and the Gamecocks still couldn't put a run across the plate. The biggest issue is that the Gamecocks struck out 12 times compared to just those 4 hits and 3 walks.

BOX SCORE

The 8-0 shutout carries South Carolina baseball into the weekend series with the Texas A&M Aggies.

The top-5 Aggies are an elite offensive team, and they are led by a player many believe to be the top sophomore in the country in Jace Laviolette. Amazingly, Laviolette's 13 home runs and 1.219 OPS do not lead the team as fellow outfielder Braden Montgomery is 2nd in the nation with 17 bombs and 1st in college baseball with 51 RBI.

A&M's starting pitchers have been good, as well. Ryan Prager has been electric on the hill, dominating his way to 51 strikeouts and 5 walks in 36 2/3 innings this season. His 0.82 is among the best in the nation, and the Aggies have given up 0 runs as a team in 3 of his 7 starts. It will be difficult to get on base for a Carolina lineup that only has three .300 hitters and 0 starters who have more walks than strikeouts.

South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston has already revealed that Eli Jones and Tyler Pitzer will start the Friday and Saturday games of this series, but no starter has been announced for the finale on Sunday. With Texas A&M's lefty-heavy lineup, Matthew Becker could be the man for the job, but because he pitched on Wednesday against Georgia Southern, he likely would not throw long if he gets the call.

The Aggies are a ridiculous 26-3 on the season, but they are just 3-2 on the road, giving USC fans a bit of hope as they host one of the SEC's favorites this weekend.

Friday's series opener is set to begin at 7:00 PM EST, game 2 on Saturday has first pitch scheduled for 4:00 PM EST, and the Sunday finale is slated to start at 1:30 PM EST. All three games will be available on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app.