It is officially historic, not that there was any doubt it would end up there.
South Carolina baseball lost its 21st and 22nd SEC games of the season on Friday at Auburn, tying the program’s record for most SEC losses in a season with a series to spare. The Tigers completed the sweep with 11-10 and 10-3 victories, adding two more offensive explosions to last night’s 24-2 onslaught.
Auburn (36-15, 16-11 SEC) scored 46 runs and hit 11 home runs in 23 offensive innings across the series, and did enough in the middle game of the series to spoil what actually was a rare strong showing from South Carolina’s (26-26, 5-22 SEC) usually tepid offense.
South Carolina fell behind 7-2 early in the second game of the series as the Tigers got to Jake McCoy with a four-run third inning, but the Gamecocks actually battled back to take an 8-7 lead in the sixth inning. A three-run fourth inning with three doubles in the frame got the visitors back in striking distance, and KJ Scobey’s towering three-run home run over the batter’s eye in the sixth inning gave South Carolina the lead.
Beau Hollins also continued flashing as one of the few bright spots in a dismal season, as the freshman first baseman pounded out four hits including a home run in the first game of the doubleheader. Auburn took the lead back with three runs in the sixth, but South Carolina did not go away in one of the more competitive games it has played all season.
Henry Kaczmar’s solo home run in the eighth trimmed the deficit to one run, and Evan Stone narrowly missed a go-ahead home run with two on base in the ninth, but had to settle for a game-tying sacrifice fly.
Unfortunately for the Gamecocks, though, Auburn had the chance to get the last word in this slugfest. The Tigers walked the game off in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a hit batter, a passed ball, a single and then a squeeze bunt, as Bub Terrell crossed the plate off Eric Guevara’s bunt.
The second game actually started similarly, but dissipated in much quicker fashion.
South Carolina took a 3-0 lead behind a Woita RBI double and a Stone two-run homer, but did not score the rest of the day. Dylan Eskew battled into the fifth inning and at one point even retired seven out of eight batters he faced, but the 3-2 lead he took into the fifth fell apart after a walk, two singles and a Cooper McMurray three-run home run that took the last remaining wind out of South Carolina’s sails.
Auburn’s offense continued tacking on the rest of the night against a completely overmatched South Carolina pitching staff which allowed at least eight runs for the seventh consecutive SEC game.
By the end of the series, the stats were gruesome. Auburn outscored South Carolina 46-15, outhit it 51-29, scored in 14 of 23 offensive innings and had at least one baserunner in 20 of 23.
And the season stats are just as ugly. The Gamecocks have already tied the school record for SEC losses, are two away from tying the mark for overall losses and have now lost eight SEC series for only the second time ever, with one final, almost certainly ugly, weekend to go.
No. 2 LSU, Paul Mainieri’s former team, heads to Founders Park next week to close the conference slate.
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