Good's strong relief outing spoiled as South Carolina drops series
Just for a moment, it seemed like South Carolina’s bats might’ve found a spark. But in reality, the struggles were still apparent.
On a day where the Gamecocks fell behind early again, the offense couldn’t make up enough ground to make a comeback. No. 3 Texas A&M picked up a 6-3 win on Saturday to clinch a series victory.
For South Carolina (21-10, 5-6 SEC), this is its second straight series loss. Since sweeping Vanderbilt two weeks ago, the Gamecocks are 2-5 over their last seven games.
While it’s undoubtedly been a tough stretch for the team lately, head coach Mark Kingston doesn’t believe in calling these series losses “deflating.”
“I would not use that word,” Kingston said. “You get 30 games, we’re playing tomorrow to still be at .500. Obviously, you want better than that, but in this league, .500 can get you to Omaha. So we just have to keep playing. Come out tomorrow, not have the weight of a series loss on our guys. Come out tomorrow and go 1-0. Just continue to play the game the way we know we can.”
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Much like Friday, South Carolina didn’t get much help from its starting pitching. Making his third start of the year, Tyler Pitzer gave up a leadoff homer to Gavin Grahovac to open the game.
Later in the inning, Pitzer battled back to just need one more strike to get out of a big jam. But he left a pitch in the zone and paid the price for it. Hayden Schott laced a two-run single into right field to cap off a three-run frame for the Aggies.
After plating another run in the third, Pitzer’s day was over after just 2.1 innings. He struggled some with his command as he gave up three walks and struck out two on 63 pitches.
“Baseball is oftentimes about matchups. Him as a young right-handed pitcher, a freshman that really is predominantly a two-pitch guy, the change-up is still developing,” Kingston said. “When you face a left-handed heavy lineup like he did today, like he did at Alabama, it makes it harder on a young right-handed pitcher.
“We played Vanderbilt and they had righties mostly in the lineup, and we know how that went. So a lot of times, it’s about the matchups. He pitched well enough to be giving us opportunity. And we continue to learn what he needs to develop so that he has better success against these kinds of lineups.”
But unlike the night before, South Carolina’s offense showed some life after a few changes were made to the starting lineup. In the third, Dalton Reeves and Lee Ellis hit back-to-back singles to put the Gamecocks in business. Two batters later, Kennedy Jones singled into right. Reeves scored from second as the ball rolled around in right field on the transfer.
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After an Ethan Petry, the Gamecocks had the bases loaded with and brought the go-ahead run to the plate. With two outs, Tyler Causey hit a slow roller to first. But Aggies first baseman Ted Burton made an unsuccessful glove flip that rolled away, allowing another run to score.
That would be all South Carolina would get in the inning as Blake Jackson hit a line drive that was snared by the pitcher. But it was the first time all weekend where the Gamecocks had a fighting chance.
Now a 4-2 game, Ty Good came on in relief of Pitzer and did everything he could to give the offense a chance. He would end up tossing 5.2 innings of one-run ball, giving up just two hits in the process. He struck out six and walked three.
“I felt great,” Good said. “We probably threw like three hours before the game and I was telling everyone that I feel very whippy. Everything was just coming out very smooth. So I felt good.”
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Meanwhile, the offense went right back to going cold. After a Parker Noland leadoff double to start the fifth, the Gamecocks wouldn’t get another hit until the eighth. With two outs, Gavin Casas came off the bench and launched a solo shot into the home bullpen to cut the deficit to 5-3.
“They’ve got good stuff. I think they just throw a lot of pitches for strikes, off-speed included,” Noland said about Texas A&M’s pitching staff. “Been keeping ourselves on our heels with off-speed pitches early in counts. … We’ve just got to do a better job handling the off-speed.”
Texas A&M added another insurance run in the ninth after Parker Marlatt came in and only recorded one out. Chris Veach worked out of the mess created as he struck out the final two batters he faced.
RELATED: South Carolina-Texas A&M Game 2 Box Score
Up next: South Carolina will try to salvage the series finale on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is at 1:30 p.m. on SEC Network Plus. The team hasn’t named a starting pitcher yet.
