FINAL: Pitching Woes Doom Gamecocks Again In 11-5 Series-Clinching Loss To No. 15 Georgia

Andrew Lyon | May 10, 2024

South Carolina High School Baseball / Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK

The South Carolina Gamecocks entered game two of their three-game series against the No. 15 Georgia Bulldogs needing a win to force a rubber match tomorrow afternoon and have a shot to secure another Top 15 series victory. Unfortunately, Mark Kingston's squad could not thwart the Bulldog bats, who, thanks to another early offensive explosion, put the game out of reach in an 11-5 defeat for the Gamecocks.

After a Cole Messina double made it 1-0 Gamecocks in the first inning, Eli Jones, who had struggled in each of his last two starts coming into tonight, would get knocked around in the third inning, giving up a three-run homer, RBI double, and RBI single which made it 5-1 Bulldogs. After giving up two leadoff singles in the following inning, Connor McCreery was sent out to the mound, but the results remained the same, as Gavin Casas would bobble the ball on the ensuing at-bat, leading to a run. Then, after a fielders choice, McCreery would throw a wild pitch leading to another Georgia run, followed by a walk, another wild pitch, and a three-run home run, making it 10-1 Georgia and effectively putting the game to bed.

Designated Hitter Dalton Reeves would hit two solo home runs, and infielder Will Tippett did hit a two-run homer in his first at-bat since getting beaned in the head back on April 19th, but the Gamecocks have been effectively dominated on their home turf this weekend by a team that barely finished over .500 this season. No South Carolina starter has made it past the end of the fourth inning in five consecutive starts, putting an unreasonable amount of pressure on a bullpen that's had their own struggles finding consistency this season.

Realistically speaking, this series loss is a dagger to the Gamecocks' hosting chances, as they'll now need several teams in front of them to stumble over the next two weeks, take tomorrow's game against the Bulldogs, and somehow navigate games at No. 1 Tennessee and in the SEC Baseball Tournament, which historically hasn't been kind to Carolina, to have a shot. We'll learn a lot about how much fight this team still has in them when they play their final home game of the regular season on Saturday.

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