It was over before it started for South Carolina baseball, even worse than yesterday. After going down 7-0 by the fifth inning in Friday night's game at No. 3 Arkansas, South Carolina gave up eight runs in the first inning and never had a chance in a XX-X loss in Fayetteville.

The loss confirms South Carolina's second consecutive series loss and third against power four conference opponents this season, already dropping the Gamecocks into an early hole. South Carolina (17-7, 1-4 SEC) will send Dylan Eskew to the mound trying to avoid a sweep and snap a three-game conference losing streak.

Starting pitcher Jake McCoy retired the first two batters he faced, but everything fell apart from there. A staggering 11 consecutive Arkansas (21-2, 4-1 SEC) batters reached base, starting with a hit batter and a two-strike single. Brent Iredale crushed a three-run home run out to left field, and the rout was on. A hit batter, two singles and a walk plated another run, then a deja vu moment from last night got Arkansas another run.

Struggling South Carolina shortstop Henry Kaczmar booted a groundball with the bases loaded last night, opening the door for two more Arkansas runs in the third inning. He did the same on a bases loaded grounder Saturday, bobbling it out of his glove and allowing another run to score. That ended McCoy's day after recording just two more outs, and all three runners he left on base scored off Roman Kimball to make it a whopping 8-0 after just one inning of play.

South Carolina's offense did put three runs back in the second inning, although it was already too little, too late. Jordan Carrion added one RBI with a base hit and Nathan Hall plated another run on a fielder's choice with the bases loaded, and the third run crossed on a bases loaded wild pitch.

Kimball, Ashton Crowther, Zach Russell and Jackson Soucie pitched the rest of the game for South Carolina in mop-up duty, allowing four total runs in seven innings and at least preserving some of the high leverage arms for the series finale.

South Carolina will try to salvage one game at 3 p.m. ET Sunday.

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