Gamecocks Extend Losing Streak to Five, Drop Game One To Arkansas

The struggles for South Carolina's Baseball team continued on Friday night, as they dropped game one to Arkansas 4-1.

As of late, it just seems like the South Carolina Gamecocks haven't been able to put together any sort of a complete performance in all facets of the game. Recently, the pitching staff has struggled the most, sometimes in the face of good hitting from the Gamecocks, but tonight, it was the batting lineup who was unable to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them.

While left-handed pitcher Hagen Smith played a part in South Carolina's struggles at the plate, the Gamecocks had chances to deal out some damage, getting runners on base in five of the six innings Smith pitched, with the lead-off man reaching base on three occasions. However, Mark Kingston's club was unable to capitalize in the moment, as they went on to bat 2-15 when runners were on base in game one.

What makes this loss sting a little bit extra is the fact that for the first time in several outings, the Gamecocks got a productive start from their first pitcher they sent out to the mound, which in this case was sophomore right-hander Eli Jones. Jones kept the Razorbacks off-balance in the first innings with a good mixture of off-speed stuff along with his fastball, striking out ten of the 21 batters he faced, and giving up one run in what was a career high 91 pitches. 

South Carolina, however, ran into trouble in the sixth and seventh innings, as a leadoff walk by Jones in the sixth lead to reliever Cade Austin being brought out to the mound. Austin struggled to get ahead of the Razorbacks bats in the count, which lead to one run being scored on a double play in his first inning, and a seventh inning that saw him issue two walks and give up two hits to Arkansas, leading to a three-run deficit the Gamecocks never overcame.

South Carolina will have to do a better job of pouncing on opportunities that show themselves when at the plate, while Eli Jones' performance hopefully gives a boost of optimism to a pitching staff that's starved for it after their recent performances along with injuries piling up. The Gamecocks will play the Razorbacks in game two of the series on Saturday at 7:00 pm EDT on SEC Network Plus.

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