GREENVILLE, S.C. — South Carolina let Ethan Darden off the hook early, and he spent the rest of the day reeling the Gamecocks in.
South Carolina baseball loaded the bases with nobody out in the first inning against Clemson’s Saturday starter, but failed to score after a popout, a strikeout and a groundout.
Darden dominated the rest of the game, and Clemson clinched the series with a 5-1 victory at Fluor Field.
“I think they were sending to the bullpen already that early," Paul Mainieri said. "We just didn’t finish the inning, and it gave him a lot of confidence. He threw a lot of strikes, and we just didn’t meet the challenge.”
The loss means South Carolina (9-2) has lost four consecutive games in the rivalry dating back to last year, and lost the series in eight of the last 11 years as Clemson (9-1) will have a chance to complete the sweep on Sunday at Founders Park.
Kennedy Jones started the day with a bang when he made a perfect throw from left field on a flyout in the first inning, cutting down Clemson’s Dominic Listi at the plate as he was trying to score on a sacrifice fly after his lead-off double.
At that point, with the charged up energy of a great defensive play and the first three runners reaching base against Darden, South Carolina looked poised to grab all the momentum. But Jones, Talmdge LeCroy and Max Kaufer could not drive in a run.
And the offense never had it that good again.
“You’re not going to get very many opportunities," Mainieri said about facing Darden. "You have to take advantage of them when you get them.”
Darden settled into a groove, cruising through most of his start. He retired 13 consecutive batters at one point, only even allowing three balls out of the infield during that stretch. He only had to pitch around two more jams in the sixth and seventh innings after his defense let him down, practically begging South Carolina to get back in the game.
Three errors across two innings gave the Gamecocks two runners on base with one out in each inning, but Darden wiggled out of both jams.
On the other side, Jake McCoy matched him pitch for pitch. The sophomore left-hander fired a career-high 12 strikeouts, blowing away the Tigers in by far the best outing of his career to date. He had his own sequence where he retired 12 out of 14 hitters, trading zeroes with Darden on a day that, in theory, would have favored the offenses with the wind blowing out steadily.
“The stuff felt great," McCoy said."My fastball command was what I wanted it to be, the slider felt good, too. Just filling up the zone was the biggest thing against those guys.”
But when he went through the lineup for a third time, the dam finally broke.
Listi started the sixth with a walk and advanced on a sacrifice bunt, before Clemson superstar Cam Cannarella delivered an RBI double into the gap in left-center. Just moments later, a hustle play scored another run.
After Clemson’s Luke Gaffney tapped a grounder in front of the plate, LeCroy pounced on it and threw him out at first. Cannarella advanced to third, but no Gamecock covered home plate after LeCroy vacated the area. Third baseman KJ Scobey was late to react, McCoy realized a split second after and it was too late. Cannarella broke for home, beat the throw with a close slide and Clemson stole a key second run.
"Once the ball is tapped on the ground and he [Scobey] sees that the catcher is going to make the play, he needs to rotate home," Mainieri said. "He just hadn't probably ever seen that play before, and I've never gone over it with him. It's just one of those instinctive plays that you have to have."
An Ethan Petry blast — his third in the last four games against Clemson — cut the deficit in half in the eighth, but Clemson’s offense responded in the ninth inning with two runs off Tyler Pitzer and another against Parker Marlatt to blow the game open.
“I should’ve had Marlatt up and ready to go," Mainieri lamented. "I was a couple of pitches behind there, so I take the blame for that.”
It was not as much of a blowout as the scoreline suggests, but the point was the same whether the final score was 1-0, 10-0 or anywhere in between.
South Carolina lost the rivalry series. Again.
Now it just has to avoid getting swept. Again.
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