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Welp. There's really not much to say about this game, which was pretty similar to Wednesday night's hot mess of a game against North Carolina.
Things were fine for the first couple of innings, but it all fell apart in the third. Georgia scored eight - EIGHT - runs in the inning, thanks to a combination of less-than-great pitching and less-than-great defense. The inning was a nightmare, as UGA more than batted around and the Gamecocks couldn't do anything right. A number of balls scooted under the gloves of fielders, and whether it as bad luck or a lack of effort or both, it was bad all around and put the Gamecocks in a hole they couldn't climb out of, because the offense stunk too.
South Carolina ended the shutout in the seventh inning, when DC Arendas came through with an RBI single. The rest of their runs came in the ninth inning. Matt Williams got plunked to start things off, Hunter Taylor doubled, and Arendas hit a sac fly to make it 13-2. Gene Cone followed with a huge two-run homer that extended his hitting streak to 22 games.
The Gamecocks had a handful of other scoring chances throughout the game, but they failed to take advantage.
Starting pitcher Braden Webb, who has had a great season so far, turned in his first really subpar performance of the season in this game. He only lasted into the third inning and was fairly un-sharp from the get-go. Reed Scott took over for Webb and did a nice job, and Tyler Haswell and Brandon Murray also pitched in the game.
South Carolina drops to 29-7 overall and 11-3 in conference play, while Georgia is now 19-17 overall and 5-9 in the SEC. The rubber game on Sunday is set to start at 1 p.m. Adam Hill will be the Gamecocks' starting pitcher, while the Bulldogs' starter is TBA.