What We Learned: USC vs Auburn Baseball

Well guys, Gamecock baseball continues to struggle. After crushing Auburn Friday night, the Gamecock bats went cold both Saturday and Sunday. There were some statistical bright spots but, in my opinion, the story of the weekend is found outside of what any boxscore or advanced metric can tell you.

Big Time Players Make Big Time Plays: Ever since Wil Crowe went down with an injury, Wynkoop has taken his game to the next level. he continued his torrid pace as he pitched 8 innings allowing 1 run (unearned) on 8 hits and striking out 10. Wynkoop dropped his ERA all the way down to a sharp 2.45 and earned his 21st career W as a Gamecock.  If Carolina wants any last gasp of hope for a postseason berth, it is going to need Wynkoop to keep pitching like Cy Young incarnate. To put it in perspective, in Wynkoop's last three starts he has pitched 25.1 innings, allowed 2 earned runs, walked two and has struck out 27 batters. If there was ever a time the USC needed a guy to pitch that well, it is now. Props to him for not giving up on a tough year.

Martin is a Dangerous Man: Some of you may have been surprised to find out we scored 10 runs Friday night. Well, it's not so surprising to find out Martin drove in 7 of those runs (including a grand slam), because in all honesty, who else this year could do something like that? His 7 RBI Friday night are the most by a Gamecock in a SEC game since Tim Angiolni did it against Florida in 1999 (with full on metal bats). Martin is hitting a crisp .349 with 11 homeruns and 48 RBI's on the year. Watching him hit has been a great pleasure this season, and I don't know where this team would be without him (probably in a sad, sad place).

This Team has an Attitude Problem: I don't know exactly what it is, but this team does not seem to be in the right place mentally. I am not saying it is everybody on the team, or even the majority of the players, but after going to nearly every single home game this year, I'm going to make a fairly safe bet and say, in general, this team just does not have a great mindset. There was an extreme example of this Sunday afternoon (if you follow me on Twitter, you know what I'm speaking of), when one of our relievers walked a guy on 4 pitches, got taken out, and proceeded to throw a hissy fit in the clubhouse AFTER he ignored his teammates who tried to greet him outside of the dugout. Witnessing that almost drove me insane. This is not little league anymore, you are not 8 years old, and it is time to grow the hell up. If you don't perform to the best of your ability and get pulled, then suck it up, go back to the dugout, and cheer on the guy who replaced you. Be upset with yourself, but part of being an adult is being able to control your emotions and use them as fuel to learn from your mistakes. Patrick Harrington, the last holdover from the 2011 title team, went to calm the guy down. Being a fifth year senior, Harrington doesn't get much playing time, so who could've blamed him if at this point he had said, "well, who cares?" Not me. But he continues to bring a great attitude to the field. Another great example of this would be Wil Crowe. The guy was our Friday night pitcher and, and the beginning of the season, seemed primed to maybe make some noise for an All-SEC or All-American bid. It didn't work out for him. But can anybody guess who isn't pouting about it? Who's the first guy out of the dugout to greet his teammates and cheer him on? Whether it his struck out, hit a homerun, stuck somebody out, or gave up the go ahead run, Wil Crowe is there to pick up his teammates 10 out of 10 times. We need more Pat Harrington's and Wil Crowe's on the team. This team has some leaders, but it doesn't have enough to succeed.

Well, that's it for this week guys. But before I wrap it up, if you haven't heard, we have a snapchat account now. And I was hoping I could get some feedback on it here. I'll post a poll and if you have any additional thoughs about it, feel free to leave it in the comments.