Jack's takes from South Carolina's frustrating loss to Arkansas
In what was a real pitching duel, No. 20 South Carolina came up short in a 2-1 loss to No. 2 Arkansas on Friday night.
It was a frustrating night, especially for the Gamecock offense, who couldn’t get much going. Now, they’ll have to win both games of the Saturday doubleheader to win the series.
Here are my takes from the loss.
Offense had no answers
To be fair, no team has been able to solve Hagen Smith this season. And South Carolina became the next victim taken on Friday. The Arkansas left-hander tossed six innings of one-run ball, striking out 11 and walking five.
While Smith pitched a gem, the Gamecocks had their chances to do something but ultimately couldn’t. The big stat of the night was going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, a trend that has been there all year.
Neither team really had a big night at the plate with each side only amassing four hits. But for South Carolina, it really was a struggle from start to finish. The offense also struck out 16 times.
The good news is if they can get some hits in these big RISP situations, they have a solid chance to win the series. Because, and we’ll get to it in a moment, but the pitching is doing its part to win. Get some more runs and you’ve got a shot.
[GamecockCentral for $1: In-depth coverage and a great community]
Pitching was, for the most part, outstanding
You really can’t complain about the job South Carolina’s pitching staff did against Arkansas. The Gamecocks were able to get in and out of multiple jams and kept the game close. What more can you ask for?
The only blemish of the night was Arkansas scoring two runs in the sixth, but other than that, good effort all around. Roman Kimball got the start and looked sharp before leaving after 2.1 innings with a thumb issue.
While Ty Good got the loss, he pitched well enough to win that game out of relief. After him, Chris Veach tossed two scoreless innings. And to wrap things up, Parker Marlatt and Jake McCoy, both freshmen, pitched the final two innings with zeroes on their line.
Now, one concern I do have was 10 walks allowed. That’s kind of an issue. But besides that, I thought the pitchers that came in were exceptional. Again, that effort went to waste because the offense couldn’t do anything. You just hope the offense shows up on Saturday.
[On3 App: Get South Carolina push notifications from GamecockCentral]
The umpiring…
There’s no real way to sugarcoat it, the umpiring in this game was atrocious. No way around it. It felt like with every strike that was called, there was a good chance and it was low or outside the zone.
And this is more of a gut feel, but it definitely felt like Arkansas was getting a lot of favorable calls. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve got one of the best pitchers in the country on the other side. But seriously, there were a good chunk of strikes that were clearly balls.
At the same time, you can’t really blame a loss on the umpires. I mean, to some extent, you definitely can. But also, the bats couldn’t string together much success and that’s what this loss comes down to.
Moving forward, I’ll say this: the strike zone was all over the place and really needs to be cleaned up for Saturday. It was really hard to watch at times and I don’t blame Mark Kingston at all for getting ejected. I think a lot of fans in the stands felt the same way he did, frustrated with the calls all night long. But now, you’ve just got to move on and try to play two strong games on Saturday afternoon.
