South Carolina narrowly avoids being shutout by Ole Miss in series opening loss

The rough start to SEC play continues for South Carolina baseball. The Gamecocks dropped their series opener to No. 25 Ole Miss Thursday night, falling behind by a lot early en route to a 9-1 loss.

The Gamecocks dip below .500 again and have lost five of their last six league contests.

The Gamecocks couldn’t get it done on the mound, an issue that has been plaguing them all year long.

Freshman Aidan Hunter got the start for the Gamecocks but could only get through three innings of work.

Hunter, thrust into a starting role because of pitching depth, gave up eight hits and was responsible for seven of the nine runs that the Rebels were able to put up on the board.

“Truthfully, he’s not ready for that. But I give him credit because he’s given everything he has, and we have his back,” Kingston said. “But he’s just a freshman right now and you’re asking to pitch on a Friday night in the SEC and that’s not that’s not what he was brought here to do. So, he’s given us everything he has, and I respect it.”

Five of those runs were by way of the long ball. Hunter gave up a two-run homer to TJ McCants in the second inning that appeared to reach Williams Street after going over the wall in right.

The second homer Hunter gave up came after Burford hit a three-run homer into the USC bullpen in the third inning.

While Hunter faltered, the South Carolina offense couldn’t assist him in the slightest.

Dylan DeLucia started on the mound for the Rebels and held the Gamecocks scoreless through seven innings.

“DeLucia just did a really nice job keeping us off balance and we just had no answers for him tonight,” Kingston said.

The Gamecocks could only muster up six hits off DeLucia during his time on the mound. He finished the game with 7.2 innings pitched, and only gave up one earned run.

“He manipulated the fastball a lot, he could run it and get over your bat and he can get under your bat with the four-seamers or the two-seamers so he just did a nice job of just missing our barrels all night,” Kingston said.

Brandt Belk, South Carolina’s leading hitter, missed another game due to illness, Kingston said it’s still up in the air whether he’ll be ready to go on Friday but that he was “obviously” missed at the top of the lineup.

John Gilreath came in to relieve Hunter in the fourth inning after Tim Elko extended the Ole Miss lead to 6-0. Immediately after entering the game, Ole Miss scored its seventh run of the game with an RBI sac fly that was charged to Hunter.

Gilreath was lights out in his first four innings on the mound, but the Rebels finally got to him in the eighth inning.

Ole Miss scored its final two runs in the top of the eighth on two hits. Gilreath finished the game with five innings pitched in which he only gave up two runs and two hits.

“He threw strikes, he only had two walks in five innings and that’s that’s a big key to when he has success and when he does not have success,” Kingston said. “When he throws strikes he’s got enough stuff to get guys out and he did that tonight. He looked relaxed tonight.”

The South Carolina offense finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth, putting together a string of hit batsmen and fielder’s choices to score one run and avoid the shutout.

Going forward, Kingston said he reminded that team about the numerous times this season they’ve come back and won the series after dropping the first game.

“The message after the game is it’s happened many times this year,” Kingston said. “We’ve had the opportunity to bounce back many many times and we have so, that has to be the mindset.”