Diamond Extra: Frustrating day at the office for Gamecock hitters

Baseball is a weird game sometimes.

Sunday, South Carolina pitchers Adam Hill and Josh Reagan threw exceptionally well, allowing UNC Greensboro just hit and one unearned run, retiring 17 straight Spartan hitters in one stretch.

But that one run was enough.

For Gamecock hitters, it was a bad day at the office. They consistently made solid contact, but the ball always seemed to find the gloves of the UNCG fielders, particularly the outfielders.

The Gamecocks had 14 fly ball outs, several traveling to the warning track just a few tantalizing feet from the wall. In addition, multiple line drives were hit right at UNCG infielders.

So close, yet so far.

“It was a pretty awesome baseball game,” Chad Holbrook said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been involved in a game where we give the opponent just one hit and we find a way to lose the game. The balls we hit pretty well seemed to be right at them.”

USC’s best scoring chances came in the bottom of the fourth and eighth. In the fourth, Danny Blair (.545 in series, 6-11) singled and reached third on a stolen base and throwing error with one out. However, Alex Destino struck out and John Jones fouled out to strand Blair at third base.

In the eighth, Blair again figured into a Gamecock scoring threat. He came to the plate with one out and runners at first and second. But he grounded a perfectly tailored double play ball towards the middle. All the UNCG shortstop had to do was glove the ball, step on second and fire to first for the inning-killing double play.

Blair is one of USC’s fastest players, and that could be the only double play he hits into all season long.

“If I had to pick one player that would never hit into a double play, it would be Danny Blair,” Holbrook said. “But that was the kind of day it was offensively for us. We didn’t do enough offensively. You have to give credit to UNC Greensboro.

“We’re still trying to find out who we are offensively and put people in the right places. We want to get a little more balance in our lineup. That’s coming. We have good players in our dugout who can swing the bat. We just have to relax and be who we are. Over time, that will come.”

Madison Stokes wasn’t ready to hit the panic button either after the Gamecocks managed just four hits on Sunday after collecting 11 hits in each of the first two games against UNCG.

“We squared some balls up, we just didn’t have success with it,” Stokes said. “We just didn’t have them fall. We have to learn from it and continue to swing it and square balls up. We have a great team with great potential and passion and heart for the game. We can learn from this loss and get after it on Tuesday.”

NOTES:

-- The Gamecocks have five games at Founders Park over the next seven days beginning with Tuesday’s 4 p.m. matchup with Charlotte.

-- Holbrook had not yet decided on midweek starters for the games against Charlotte and Kansas State when he spoke to the media following Sunday’s loss. However, he named Cody Morris and Brandon Murray as two possible candidates.

-- Gamecock pitchers combined to allow just three runs (one earned) on 10 hits with 27 strikeouts in 27 innings of work against UNCG. The Spartans led the NCAA in hitting in 2016, but hit just .115 with a .149 slugging percentage and a .179 on-base percentage in the three games at Founders Park.