Meltdown.

South Carolina baseball did everything you would want in the series rubber match.

Until the last possible moment.

South Carolina’s 5-3 lead in the 9th inning dissipated into a catastrophic 6-5 loss in 10 innings, after two booted ground balls in the ninth inning opened the door for Oklahoma to tie the game and eventually win it on a Jason Walk home run in extra innings.

“That was a bitter pill to swallow,” Paul Mainieri said. “I thought for most of the game we played well enough to win, had a chance, but a couple of things I think ended up being our demise.”

The Gamecocks took the upper-hand in a back-and-forth game thanks to individual runs in the eighth and ninth, and had closer Brenden Sweeney on the mound to finish off the Sooners.

Sweeney issued a one out walk, and everything fell apart.

A ground ball to Henry Kaczmar had a chance to end the game on a double play, but the usually sure handed shortstop booted it into the outfield. Two batters later with runners on the corners after a fielder’s choice, a hot shot to second base could have ended it.

Again, Jordan Carrion, usually rock solid with his glove, could not come up with it. The ball trickled into shallow right field, and the game continued.

Oklahoma’s (17-2, 2-1 SEC) Kyle Branch grounded one up the middle and although Kaczmar knocked it down, he had no chance to make a throw across the diamond.

Tie game, air out of the balloon.

“Those guys have made big plays for us all year,” Mainieri said. “If you’d want the ball hit to anyone, it would be especially to Carrion. He’s been so good. He just didn’t make that play. It was a tough thing for the kid because he’s playing his heart out and doing such a good job. I feel bad for him, but no one play loses a game for you.”

Throw in one more infield hit, and the final stats for the ninth inning almost had to be seen to be believed.

Two runs, five baserunners and the ball never left the infield.

In theory, there was still more baseball to play. But as the rain fell at Founders Park and the feeling of a celebratory series win collapsed into a gloomy vibe, the Gamecocks were dead on arrival for the rest of the game.

South Carolina (16-5, 1-2 SEC) went down in order in the ninth inning, stranded two runners on base in the tenth after Oklahoma took the lead and dropped the series in heartbreaking fashion.

All of it came after an afternoon with plenty of positives, too. Dylan Eskew struggled with free passes, but only allowed one run in 4 ⅓ solid innings. Aydin Palmer, Parker Marlatt and Zach Russell were strong out of the bullpen.

Kaczmar had three hits, four different players knocked in a run and eight recorded a hit. Both Ethan Petry and Kennedy Jones earned painful RBIs with bases loaded hit-by-pitches, although the latter of which knocked Jones out of the game with injury.

“We should have won the game going away I thought,” Mainieri said. “We outhit them, I thought we pitched great for the most part and unfortunately we just did a few things that ended up contributing to our demise in the game today.”

In the spirit of March and basketball, the SEC is a make or miss league. South Carolina had a make in its back pocket for an SEC series win, and fell apart.

Instead, it’s a miss. Not just a miss, a home miss with series against Arkansas and Tennessee coming next.

How quickly the vibes can change.

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