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After the blowout against The Citadel earlier in the week, South Carolina’s offense struggled against Auburn on Friday night, and that, along with some defensive issues, put the team in a hole they couldn’t quite recover from.
The Tigers took an early lead, going up 2-0 in the first inning thanks to a couple of Gamecocks errors. Auburn added three more runs in the third inning, thanks to a two-out double from Josh Anthony and a two-out single by Bowen McGuffin.
South Carolina finally ended the shutout in the fifth inning, after Jacob Olson and Carlos Cortes singled with one out and Madison Stokes brought Olson home.
The Gamecocks scored the rest of their runs in the sixth inning. With one out, Matt Williams walked, then Alex Destino and Chris Cullen knocked back to back hits to load the bases. Tolbert hit into a fielder’s choice to make it 5-2, then Olson and Cortes each singled to bring Destino and Cullen in.
Starter Wil Crowe didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but he did a nice job coming back from the early deficit and shaky defense to help keep South Carolina in the game. Crowe worked six innings and allowed eight hits and five runs, though the first two were unearned. He walked one batter and struck out six. Reed Scott pitched the rest of the game for the Gamecocks.
With the loss, South Carolina drops to 18-7 overall and 5-2 in the SEC, while Auburn improves to 22-6 overall and 6-1 in conference play. They’ll meet again tomorrow, with first pitch set for 6 p.m. Clarke Schmidt will be the Gamecocks’ starter on the mound.