South Carolina Eliminates Alabama Baseball from SEC Tournament in First Round

The Alabama baseball team did not have a long stay just up the road in Hoover this year.

The Alabama baseball team in its dugout. / Alabama Athletics

HOOVER, Ala.— After winning two games at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., in each of the past three seasons, the Alabama baseball team went one-and done in the 2024 iteration of the event. The seventh-seeded Crimson Tide has now dropped three of its last four games following Tuesday's first-round, 10-5 conference tournament loss to 10-seed South Carolina.

Things were different from the last time these two met, during the regular season when both sides were ranked. Alabama (33-22) won two out of three games from March 28-30 at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Both squads have encountered some difficult sledding, and a home run by first baseman Gavin Casas in the top of the third inning was South Carolina's first extra-base hit in 90 at-bats.

Alabama jumped out to a 3-0 lead with frontline starter Greg Farone taking the bump five days after throwing more than 100 pitches in a game against Auburn. First, right fielder William Hamiter extended his hitting streak to 10 games with an RBI single in the opening inning. In the second, second baseman Bryce Eblin was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and third baseman Gage Miller had a sacrifice fly RBI.

The Gamecocks (34-21) scored the next six runs, all in the third inning, starting with Casas' bomb. That was capped off by a two-out grand slam from designated hitter Dalton Reeves. By then, Farone was out of the game. Reeves got his big hit off Aidan Moza. The Crimson Tide got a pair back in the home fourth, including another RBI from Hamiter. 6-5 was as close as things got from there. Six of South Carolina's 10 runs came with two outs. The Gamecocks added a pair of runs in the sixth inning and one more in the eighth, effectively closing the book on an opportune emergence from a six-game losing skid.

"It was one of those days," first-year Alabama coach Rob Vaughn said. "Two-out hits win games... I thought we played great defense." He said Farone competed well before running out of gas, which was expected after his final start preceding Tuesday's game. South Carolina also rode relief pitcher Chris Veach for 5.2 innings, and he shut the offense down, giving up just three hits in a shutout performance. "I was sitting on the change-up," said Hamiter. "That was his go-to pitch." Catcher Mac Guscette attributed some of those difficulties to not seeing a pitch like that every day. "You try to take it, and it's a strike, and then you try to move on it, and it's 20 miles [per hour] off his heater," Vaughn said.

South Carolina had a trio of players with three hits on the day: catcher Cole Messina (one home run, three RBIs), right fielder Ethan Petry (one home run, two RBIs) and left fielder Blake Jackson (3-for-5). As a team, Mark Kingston's squad hit four home runs. Messina's fifth-inning big fly stretched the lead back to beyond a single run, which Alabama failed to overcome at any point for the remainder of the game. Alton Davis II, Matthew Heiberger and Braylon Myers also pitched in the game for the Crimson Tide.

The recent cold stretch has dimmed the Crimson Tide's NCAA Tournament prospects, with the loss to the Gamecocks almost assuredly eliminating any chance the team had of being a No. 2 regional seed. Rather, due to a series loss at Auburn and a one-game stay at the SEC Tournament, Alabama is likely staring down a berth as a No. 3 seed.

Time will tell how things officially pan out. The NCAA Tournament selection show is set for 11 a.m. CT on May 27. The Crimson Tide entered Tuesday with the fifth-hardest schedule in the country and an RPI of 18, which sank from 11 following the Auburn series. Alabama does have a claim to being the only SEC team to beat No. 1 Tennessee in a series in 2024. Both the Crimson Tide and the Gamecocks finished the regular season with 13 league wins.

"I hope that we're in," said Hamiter, whose college career would end if Alabama was not selected to the field of 64. "I don't know how many more games of baseball I have left. I hope it's a bunch." Vaughn believes it's a no-brainer that his team be among those chosen. "When you look at the body of work, the series wins we have, the quality wins we have... this is one of the top 64 teams in the country."