Coming off getting swept by Texas last weekend, the Gamecocks were looking for something good to happen before kicking off SEC play this weekend.

They didn't get it Wednesday, dropping their midweek game 9-4 to Davidson to push their losing skid to four games before league play begins.

South Carolina (11-4) dug itself an early hole it ultimately couldn't dig themselves out of, giving up a season-high nine runs, in the first loss on the midweek this season.

“Congrats to Davidson. They played better than we did tonight. We pitched really well at the beginning and the end but in the middle it was a struggle," Mark Kingston said. "Between that and needing to score more runs on a Tuesday night, just wasn’t a good night for us.”

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After South Carolina's pitching held firm early with two no-hit innings to start the game, things began to sputter.

Travis Luensmann put the first two runners on in the third inning with a double and a single and the floodgates opened en route to a five-run inning for Davidson on five hits and an error.

The Gamecocks struggled to get out of the inning, having to use two different and giving up two two-run doubles to put them behind the eight ball.

Despite the Gamecocks able to chip away some, Davidson would score in four straight innings to keep South Carolina at bay. The Wildcats ended up plating two in the fourth and a run apiece the next two innings.

It was a rough night for South Carolina's pitching staff, which allowed nine runs on 11 hits, walked seven, hit a batter and balked once. Four of those hits went for extra bases: three doubles and a home run. They would strike out 17, though, with eight coming from the final three pitches: Parker Coyne, Mag Cotto and Wes Sweatt.

“They weren’t (missing a lot of barrels). It was freshmen getting opportunities. They just need to do a better job of making better pitches," Kingston said. "It’s that simple. We walked too many guys tonight. When we did throw strikes they were right on the middle of the plate.”

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Nine pitchers combined to throw 193 pitches, just 122 for strikes and couldn't find ways to get out of innings consistently.

"We need to do a better job on the mound when these guys get their opportunities," Kingston said.

Coyne had the best day of any pitcher, pitching 1.2 no-hit innings, allowing a base runner on a walk but striking out six of the five batters he faced.

Offensively South Carolina picked up nine hits but managed four runs, hitting 4-for-23 with runners on base, 3-for-15 with men in scoring position. They'd leave 12 runners on base.

South Carolina hopped out in front early on a Josiah Sightler and David Mendham had two RBI on a single then a sac fly while Wes Clarke hit his team-leading 10th homer of the year, a solo shot to left.

“It’s just a matter of getting hits. At the end of the day, we did it for 11 games straight and now for four games we haven’t done it as well. They did a nice job. The guy that threw the majority of the game for them had an opponent batting average of .158 and he made it tough on us," Kingston said.

"We had been scoring a lot more runs on Tuesdays. We need to do a better job of doing that consistently and we need to do a better job on the mound when these guys get their opportunities.”

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This is the longest losing streak the Gamecocks have had this year and the longest since losing six straight in April of 2019.

The Gamecocks have a quick turnaround now with a trip to No. 2/3 Vanderbilt on the docket in Nashville this weekend.

“All you do is get on the bus tomorrow. You prepare yourself, you prepare your team and you go out there and compete. That’s the story of baseball," Kingston said. "You’ll go on hot streaks, you’ll get in a funk every now and again and the schedule is going to keep coming at you. Our job is to get on the bus and go compete.”

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