Gamecocks suffer first loss in flat showing at Clemson
CLEMSON, S.C. — Everything was doomed from the start for South Carolina baseball in game one of the rivalry series.
After a two hour, 15 minute rain delay before first pitch, Clemson’s leadoff batter Cooper Ingle knocked a solo home run out to left field off the first pitch of the night from Will Sanders, and the Tigers rode the momentum all night. Clemson won 5-2, its fifth consecutive win overall in the rivalry and fourth straight at home. The win also snapped its four-game losing streak, and handed South Carolina (9-1) its first loss of 2023.
Ingle’s lead-off home run was the first punch in an early Clemson (5-4) flurry, with the Tigers attacking Sanders early in counts. Two batters later Blake Wright lined a first pitch double into the right field corner for a double, and Cam Cannarella smoked one into left field on the second pitch of his at-bat to make it 2-0 Clemson.
"They were aggressive," Mark Kingston said. "That was clearly their plan. They were going to be aggressive on him. Again, it was a good baseball game. Will wishes he would have done better, but you can take a lot from a game like this."
And while Sanders was very far from his best self, the defense behind him offered little help. Or in one case, in front of him.
The junior righthander appeared to end the second inning and strand a runner in scoring position with a strikeout looking on Ingle, but catcher Cole Messina whiffed on the ball. It trickled all the way to the backstop, and then his throw down to first sailed into right field. The result was a dropped third strike and an error leading to Clemson’s third run. The Tigers grabbed another fortuitous run in the third when Carson Hornung misplayed a flyball in the left field corner, allowing Wright to advance from first to third on what should have been an out. He scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 4-0, where the score stood for most of the night.
"It was a borderline pitch that was called a strike," Kingston said explaining the Messina error. "He thought it was a ball, so he tried to frame that ball and jerk it into the strike zone and it just went off his glove. And then when he got back to it he knew he had to throw that guy out or it could be a run, and it turned into a run and the ball sailed on him a little bit. It wasn't for lack of trying."
Impromptu Clemson starter Austin Gordon silenced the South Carolina bats for 4 ⅔ innings, only allowing three hits and not walking any batters after taking the spot of Clemson’s regular Friday starter Ryan Ammons, who was unavailable with an injury. The Gamecocks only got the ball out of the infield three times in the first four innings, and their two big early scoring chances only yielded one run.
The Gamecocks pushed two runners into scoring position in the fifth inning only for Will McGillis to strike out to keep it 4-0. After scoring one run on a Talmadge LeCroy single and having runners on the corners with nobody out in the seventh, Hornung struck out and Clemson transfer Dylan Brewer bounced into a double play to retire the side.
"[Evan] Stone is still working through some things in the nine hole" Kingston said about the decision to pinch hit. "It was right-on-right, and Brewer is our lefty off the bench. He hit it fairly well, but it was right at the guy and he turned a double play."
Two hits plus a walk in the ninth created a second run and did bring McGillis to the plate as the tying run with two outs and one last chance at a miracle comeback, but he cued a ball to first base to end the game.
Game two of the traveling weekend series is set for 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon at Fluor Field in Greenville with Noah Hall scheduled to start for South Carolina.
"It's a long season," Kingston said. "We're in a rival's ballpark. We lost by three runs with the tying run at the plate. We're going to be just fine."