Gamecocks drop third straight series despite sensational pitching

For the second time in two days, South Carolina’s starter pitched a masterpiece of a game. For the second time in two days, things unraveled in one inning and the Gamecocks lost to Mississippi State.

Saturday it was Wil Crowe who pitched well, throwing eight innings of four-hit baseball, giving up just two runs. He came out to start the ninth in a tie game, and that’s where things began to falter.

Jonah Bride couldn’t corral a chopping ground ball and the leadoff man reaches on a single. Then a single gets laced to center. Then Crowe can’t field a slow roller to the mound in time for an out.

All of a sudden, the bases are loaded with no outs and Colie Bowers is entering the game.

“I felt fine. I think my pitch count was fine. I’m glad they put me in a position where they trust me like that,” Crowe said about the ninth inning. “I thought I made some pitches, made some good pitches and the ball didn’t fall the way we wanted to.”

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Bowers would give up three runs in the inning on a RBI groundout, wild pitch and single. All were credited to Crowe, and the junior picks up his third loss of the season.

“It’s baseball. It happens. I got to keep pitching. I got to go next pitch, next throw,” Crowe said. “When I talk to my guys behind me I tell them if something like that happens, so what? It’s baseball; make the next play. I trust in all of them.”

Crowe’s outing comes less than 24 hours after Clarke Schmidt pitched eight innings, giving up two earned runs and retiring the last 19 batters he faced while striking out 11.

Schmidt picked up his first loss of the season as the Gamecocks couldn’t put up enough runs to topple the Bulldogs.

Saturday, Carlos Cortes drove in all four of the Gamecocks’ runs, hammering two, two-run homers off Mississippi State’s pitching.

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As a team, the Gamecocks (21-13, 7-7 SEC) hit 8-for-36 (.222) with only three hits coming outside the team’s leadoff and No. 2 hitters. They left nine runners on base, four in scoring position.

“At the end of the day, you have to make plays and you have to get clutch hits and you have to get bunts down,” head coach Chad Holbrook said. “Right now we can’t put all of those things together and we’re coming up on the short end of the stick because of that.”

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Crowe emphasized after the game Sunday’s “another day to play ball” and the Gamecocks will come out ready to play and not get swept.

Holbrook delivered the same mantra, saying his team will have to create its own momentum and create positive energy in the dugout.

First pitch Sunday is scheduled for 4 p.m.

“I’m a big believer that you can feel sorry for yourself and think everything’s going against you or you can get determined and make something happen yourself,” Holbrook said. “Wins don’t fall in your lap in this league. You have to be tough and when all things are against you, you have to will yourself into making something happen.”