Gamecock Bats Quiet In Game 1 Loss To Clemson

South Carolina's Baseball team fell for the first time in 2023 on Friday night, losing game one in their series against the Clemson Tigers 5-2.

Mark Kingston and South Carolina Gamecocks' baseball team had been on a tear to start the 2023 season, scoring runs any which way possible while simultaneously putting up dominant showings on the mound. In game one of their historic rivalry against the Clemson Tigers' baseball team on Friday night, the Gamecocks stumbled for the first all season, and there weren't many things to write home about. 

After the Gamecocks went down one-two-three to start the ballgame, the Clemson Tigers would start off their half of the inning with a bang, as Cooper Ingle would hit an opposite field homer on a Will Sanders fastball. This would be a sign of things to come for the first few innings of the contest, as the Tiger bats went after Sanders' fastballs in a shockingly aggressive fashion, one that paid dividends as Clemson got another three runs in the first three innings.

One other sign of the night to come for South Carolina was two separate fielding plays that lead to a run each for Clemson, including a passed ball and throwing error attributed to catcher Cole Messina and a tough drop on the run in left field by Carson Hornung in the third inning, which brought an eventual scoring run to third base. Sanders settled down in the middle innings, relying more on his slider and curveball, throwing the Tigers off balance and only giving up one run after the third inning.

On the flip side of the coin, the Monte Lee coached South Carolina hitters struggled mightily to get anything going against Clemson starter Austin Gordon, who mixed his pitches well and made sure the Gamecocks were never able to hit the ball flush. While the Gamecocks were able to get Gordon out of the game in the sixth inning due to drawing enough long pitch counts at the plate, they continued to have issues capitalizing on any windows of opportunity, as they were unable to bring home a runner in scoring position on three of the four chances they created.

Eli Jerzembeck would shut the Tigers down in the seventh and eighth innings, but Carolina was unable to get a late game rally going after recording a couple of singles and scoring Gavin Casas, and subsequently dropped their first game of the season. The two teams will meet again later this afternoon at 1 PM ET at Fluor Field in Greenville, SC, in a game that will be streaming live on SEC Plus.

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