South Carolina’s offensive struggles continued in Greenville on Saturday and the pitching staff allowed too many walks, leading to a loss and setting up a rubber game against Clemson on Sunday.
The Tigers got on the board first, taking a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a sac fly. The Gamecocks evened things up in the top of the fourth inning curtesy of a leadoff homer by Madison Stokes.
The 1-1 tie lasted only until the bottom of the fourth, after Clemson worked three walks to load the bases, then another sac fly and a base hit put them up 3-1. A single in the fifth inning brought home the final two runs of the game.
South Carolina didn’t really threaten much at any point in this game, but every time they did set up a scoring chance, they were unable to capitalize. This has been an ongoing issue, and considering how hot the bats were to start the season, they should be able to do better than this.
The pitching staff has been fairly strong all season, but walks have also been a bit of an issue and they definitely were in Saturday’s game. Clemson doesn’t any help getting on base, but the Gamecocks have been giving them a lot of free passes. Starter Cody Morris didn’t have his best outing, working 3.1 innings and giving up four hits and three runs. He also walked six batters and struck out four. Gage Hinson, TJ Shook and Parker Coyne combined to go the rest of the way, with Shook pitching the most. He did a nice job, recording back-ot-back three up, three down innings.
South Carolina drops t 7-4 on the season, while the Tigers are now 10-1. The rubber game will get underway tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Clemson.