South Carolina vs. No. 5 Vanderbilt, game 1 recap: Commodores blank Gamecocks 12-0

South Carolina lost its fifth game in a row, falling to Vanderbilt by an unpleasant score of 12-0. Instead of writing out a lengthy recap, let me give you a concise summary of the game: it was bad.

There were two good things that happened in this game. Vince Fiori made his first-ever start and did a great job. He worked 5 1/3 innings and gave up only two hits against the No. 4 team in the country. The Commodores also scored a run while Fiori was in the game, but it was unearned. Given that the Gamecocks are short on starting pitchers for the weekend series, it was encouraging to see Fiori have this kind of performance. He'll probably get another shot at starting the first game of next weekend's series, so hopefully he can build on what he did in this game.

The second good thing didn't actually involve baseball. It was a segment that featured Jack Wynkoop and Wil Crowe, and it was the most entertaining and enjoyable thing I've seen from the baseball team in days.

South Carolina had no offense (they were being no hit into the fifth inning), lackluster pitching other than Fiori, and made their apparently requisite fielding mistakes. Vanderbilt is obviously very good, but getting shut out by double digits at home is embarrassing and bad no matter how you slice it.

The Gamecocks drop to 23-16 overall and 6-10 in the SEC, while the Commodores improve to 29-10 overall and 12-4 in conference play. They'll meet again tomorrow, with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. at Carolina Stadium.