Gamecocks' Self-Inflicted Errors Pile Up, Lead To Game One Loss Against Kentucky

South Carolina's Baseball team got in too big of a hole on Friday night and lost to the Kentucky Wildcats by a score of 7-3.

Mark Kingston's squad was coming off a three-game series sweep over the No. 3 Florida Gators just 13 days ago and looked to have officially made their case to be a Top 8 national seed for the NCAA Regionals in June. Fast forward to tonight, and the Gamecocks look like a completely different team for all the wrong reasons.

The Gamecocks dropped game one of an SEC series for the second weekend in a row as they struggled to get anything going offensively and didn't help themselves much on the mound either. It all started in the first inning with Will Sanders, who's had an up-and-down junior campaign, issuing two free passes and throwing a wild pitch against Ryan Waldschmidt, allowing Kentucky to strike in the very first inning and grab a lead that they would hold onto the rest of the way,

In the second inning, just needing one out to get out of the bottom half, James McCoy would hit a routine flyball to centerfielder Dylan Brewer, but the transfer outfielder lost the ball in the harsh Kentucky sunset, and a botched relay throw to short would allow McCoy to score a rare inside-the-park home run. These two costly innings would be precursors for how the night would unfold for South Carolina, as the Gamecocks issued seven free passes and gave up ten total hits to Kentucky, seemingly giving them a chance to score in every inning.

At the plate, the Gamecocks' struggles were arguably a flashback to last weekend, as, besides a solo homer by Gavin Casas in the 4th, South Carolina didn't have a single baserunner reach 3rd base until the seventh inning, a frame that saw them finally string together three singles, a hit-by-pitch and a sac fly to cut the Kentucky lead to one. In the bottom half of the inning, however, the Wildcats would increase their lead to a game-high four runs through more small-ball tactics and effectively put the game out of reach the rest of the way.

It's a frustrating loss for South Carolina, who, despite the rash of injuries they've been dealt, clearly hasn't been the same team that took the field just two weeks to go. The Gamecocks have to play more fundamentally sound, as they're in a position right now where every mistake they make becomes amplified, which seems to be wearing on many players' minds.

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