South Carolina's comeback bid falls short as Kentucky evens series
For Mark Kingston, six runs is the target. If South Carolina can reach that magic number or more, the odds of winning are in its favor.
The Gamecocks managed to reach that number by the end of the first inning. And they’d double it by the end of the night. But in a game where the pitching didn’t deliver, they lost 15-13 to Kentucky on Saturday.
“It can be frustrating but I told the team I was just as proud of them tonight as I was last night,” Kingston said. “It’s real easy to say how proud you are of a team after a win. But they played just as hard tonight. They had probably more great at-bats, more hits, more runs.”
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Right out of the gate, the emotions were still high after Friday night’s walk-off win for South Carolina (28-14, 10-10 SEC). With two outs in the home half of the first, last night’s hero Blake Jackson came up to bat and received a loud ovation from the crowd.
But on the first pitch Jackson saw, Kentucky starter Dominic Niman plunked him with the intent of sending a message after his walk-off homer on Friday.
“If memory serves, I think they issued a warning to both teams, and I was very unhappy that we were part of the warning,” Kingston said. “I didn’t think it was fair that we would get a warning as well. We’re the ones that got hit by a pitch. I didn’t think it was fair that both teams should be issued a warning. He disagreed and we moved on.”
As a result, South Carolina went on to score six runs in the inning after the incident, all with two outs. Just like that, the Gamecocks had themselves a 6-1 lead by the end of the first. It looked like they hadn’t skipped a beat after Friday’s late comeback.
And with Eli Jones on the mound, South Carolina was in about as good of a position as it could be in. But in the fourth, the right-hander gave up back-to-back homers to Kentucky to cut the lead down to two.
Things only got worse before they got better, as Jones gave up a two-run single into center to tie the game at six. He wouldn’t make it out of the fourth with his outing ending after 3.2 innings.
The Gamecocks turned to Matthew Becker to try and get out of Jones’ mess. But even he couldn’t do so. Facing his first batter of the night, the left-hander got into his motion and crouched as he was ready to throw an 0-2 pitch. But as he stepped off the mound, Grant Smith stole home without a throw, giving the Wildcats a 7-6 lead.
It was the start of a rough outing for Becker, who gave up five runs on four hits in only one inning of work. His numbers became more inflated after Tyler Pitzer gave up a few more runs to add to Becker’s total. By the middle of the fifth, Kentucky had gone up 12-6.
“All you can do is battle and go to the next guy. That’s all you can really do is you give the next guy the opportunity,” Kingston said. “Eli and Matthew just weren’t their normal selves tonight for whatever reason. I thought the guys that came in after them did a pretty solid job. But it was just too much to overcome.”
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Meanwhile, South Carolina’s offense had gone cold and couldn’t string together more runs after the first inning barrage. But that changed in the sixth when Cole Messina, who had been one for his last 15, cranked a three-run homer over the left field wall to cut the deficit to three.
In the eighth, the Gamecocks added two more runs on an error by Kentucky and a sacrifice fly from Kennedy Jones. Just when it seemed they were bound for an ugly loss, they were now down by a run.
But in the ninth, Kentucky scored three runs off Parker Marlatt to take a 15-11 lead. And that seemed to be the nail in the coffin for South Carolina.
However, the fight was still there. The Gamecocks managed to load the bases with one out in their half of the ninth, bringing the tying run to the plate. They’d plate two on a hit by pitch and a walk to make it a two-run game.
“Generally, when we score six runs, we win. I just wanted to go with what I thought would probably be our best offense,” Kingston said. “We scored 13 runs, so in that regard, we did what we were trying to do. I think it was a pretty good look for us. It felt like a lot of good at-bats consecutively. So it’s something we’ll continue to look at.”
With two outs, Gavin Casas gave a 2-2 pitch a ride to deep center, but Kentucky’s Nolan McCarthy made a leaping grab to seal the deal.
Up next: South Carolina will go for the series win once again in the finale on Sunday. First pitch is at 3 p.m. on SEC Network. The Gamecocks have yet to announce a starting pitcher.
