GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Two games short.

South Carolina baseball’s season ended two games short of a trip to the College World Series, a fourth consecutive loss in a super regional series for the program dating back to 2013. After dropping the opening game of the Super Regional 5-4 on Friday night, the Gamecocks fell 4-0 at Condron Ballpark in their 63rd and final game of the season.

Hurston Waldrep was the story of the night for Florida (50-15). The Southern Mississippi transfer did exactly what he was brought to Gainesville to do, sending the Gators to Omaha for the 13th time in program history with 13 strikeouts in eight shutout innings.

"Waldep was incredible," Mark Kingston said. There's just no two ways about it. He was incredible; he would have beat anyone in the country today. He was on a mission, and he was as good as I have seen in that situation maybe in 20 years. For a guy to pitch like that to carry his team to Omaha, he put them on his back, and you have to give him credit."

Infield struggles have been a recurring theme for South Carolina (42-21) throughout the season, and they reared their head at the worst possible time. With two runners on and one out in the second inning, Jack Mahoney induced what had a chance to be an inning-ending double play. Braylen Wimmer looked to stay back on a bouncing ball to him but Michael Braswell cut it off from his second base position.

That meant there was nobody to cover the base, Wimmer himself was unable to get over in time. Braswell recorded an out at first base, but that advanced the runners and kept the inning alive for Colby Halter. He did the damage with his extra life by delivering a two-run double into the right-field corner.

And a 2-0 lead in the second inning was more than enough for Waldrep. South Carolina put lead-off runners on in the first, third and fifth innings without advancing any of them into scoring position, and the only chance with a runner in scoring position came in the fourth inning after Ethan Petry reached second on an error. Waldrep came back to get two groundouts though, and locked himself back in.

"We were just chasing a lot of pitches," Petry said. "The game was sped up on us, and we were just chasing balls in the dirt. Our approach the last time was to have it top part of the zone, and we weren't executing that part."

Mahoney labored through the fifth inning with two walks on 10 total pitches before pitching coach Justin Parker came out for a mound visit with closer Chris Veach warming up in the bullpen.

Kingston elected to leave Mahoney in to face the red-hot Josh Rivera, and it cost him another run when Rivera roped an RBI single into left. Veach came in and struck out the next two batters to limit the damage, but Waldrep had an insurance run that deflated the visiting dugout.

"You can't throw your B-stuff out there to beat this team," Mahoney said. "You have to have your A+ stuff. I really can't say enough about this Florida lineup. I saw them twice, they gave me hell twice. I obviously came out on the right end of it the first time, and the wrong side of it today. Part of that was Hurston Waldrep. Again if you want to see what first-round baseball looks like, that's a first-round guy."

One strikeout, devastating splitter and slow roller at a time South Carolina’s season faded away, as Waldrep only gained confidence. He finished the seventh inning by freezing Michael Braswell on a 3-2 pitch, his 11th strikeout of the night on his 99th offering that sent a program-record crowd of 8,851 into a frenzy, then went a mile further with two more strikeouts to finish the eighth.

Halter tacked on a fourth run and his third RBI with an eighth inning sacrifice fly off Eli Jones, And when Florida closer Brandon Neely retired Talmadge LeCroy on a pop-out to second base, it meant the Gators ended South Carolina's season in the postseason for the second year in a row.

"We stuck together through thick and thin, and there's just so much that these guys will be able to take with them for the rest of their lives.," Kingston said. "About lessons, about teamwork, about discipline, about sacrifice. So many things go into why athletics can be great for people. I pray that these guys will be much better people long term for bheing a part of this great journey, because it wasn't easy.

"The easy journeys don't teach you much. This was a hell of a journey at times, and I told them they can walk out of here with their chins up and their heads held high."

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