Gamecocks flat in series-dropping loss to Florida
Kevin Madden roped a double off the left-field wall and stood at second base with one out. He represented South Carolina’s third base runner of the night through three innings but jogged back to the dugout soon after as Josiah Sightler flew out to left.
That moment—South Carolina’s seventh empty at-bat with a runner on base through the first three innings—was the last time the Gamecocks had a man on base Friday night against Florida.
The Gators responded the following inning, using three hits and two Jalen Vasquez errors to jump out to a lead in what was a dud of a series loss to drop South Carolina below .500 on the year.
“Games have flow. Games go up and down. Throughout the course of a game you’re going to have ups and downs,” Mark Kingston said. I don’t think that deflated the team. That’s just baseball sometimes. Sometimes you have a rally, sometimes you get a big hit, sometimes you don’t. You always bounce back.”
It was one of the Gamecocks’ more stagnant games of the season, especially with the chance to even up a series. South Carolina put up little to no resistance in an 8-0 loss.
Noah Hall labored through three innings, his shortest outing since being inserted into the starting rotation.
He threw 87 pitches, giving up just four hits and two walks. His last inning was the nightmarish third that saw Florida take the lead. Of his three runs given up, only one was earned.
The third was the turning point. South Carolina wasted its opportunity and was playing sluggish enough for Kingston to get ejected, trying to spark his team.
“Tonight was a little flat, for whatever reason. Normally when Noah’s on the mound we’re really energized and have a lot of juice,” he said. “Their pitcher had a lot to do with that. He was really on top of his game. At that point, it felt like it was a card I needed to play.”
The move didn’t work. Florida launched a two-run shot two pitches after the ejection en route to putting up five runs on six hits against South Carolina’s bullpen.
Offensively, the Gamecocks put up little to no resistance. South Carolina didn’t have a base runner the final six innings. The Gators retiring 19 straight to end the game.
South Carolina got leadoff hits in both the first and second innings but didn’t advance a single runner and ultimately went 0-for-7 with runners on base. Hitters struck out 11 times and didn’t walk once.
“We just didn’t play well,” Kingston said. “They played better than us in all three phases.”
The starting pitching could be shaken up moving forward. There’s potential for Will Sanders to get held or pitch a limited amount to be ready for the SEC Tournament.
“We have to look at the big picture now,” Kingston said. “Since the series can’t be won at this point, I need to talk to (Justin Parker) about what we want to do about pitching.”
The Gamecocks now have to finish strong to avoid a losing season for the first time since 1996.
“Look, we’re one of the teams that get to go to the SEC Tournament. There’s two teams that won’t,” Kingston said. “We still have a lot to play for. When you get the privilege of playing SEC baseball, every day you put on that uniform you better respect it.”
