Playing, and winning, four straight rubber matches in SEC play, sooner or later the dam was going to burst and Friday night it did for the Gamecocks.
After falling behind in each of their last four series, including this weekend’s against Arkansas, the Gamecocks entered game three with a chance to take the series. In the three previous they did, but not Friday.
South Carolina’s offense sputtered in game two of Friday’s doubleheader and Arkansas put together enough offense for a 5-1 to take the series.
“My disappointment lies in the fact we had a chance to take the series tonight and we didn’t,” Mark Kingston said. “That was the number one team in America and we’re getting really close. There are a few hurdles we still have to get over but we’ve come a long way, no doubt about it.”
The Gamecocks (25-12, 11-7 SEC) struggled against Arkansas pitching all night, putting up one run on a solo shot against Razorback starter Patrick Wicklander.
They only mustered two hits on the night, both charged to Wicklander, and weren’t able to stitch together many good at-bats against Arkansas pitching.
“He wasn’t really keeping us off balance. He was throwing fastballs down the middle and we weren’t touching them,” Brady Allen said. “Maybe it’s because it was rising. I’m pretty disappointed myself in the way we performed at the plate.”
South Carolina only saw on average 12 pitches in an inning and just nine of their 32 plate appearances lasted longer than four pitches.
“It’s a catch 22. When you face great pitching you have to pick one or the other, and you have to go with the flow of the game,” Kingston said. “When the other team is not walking guys and they have great stuff you have to try and be aggressive and hope you square it up. If you don’t, you’re going to have some quick innings.”
Outside of an Allen home run, the Gamecocks didn’t record an extra base hit and only put one runner in scoring position all night and go hitless in seven at-bats with runners on base.
They’d strike out six straight times to end the game off Arkansas closer Kevin Kopps.
“That’s one of the better pitchers I’ve seen in my college career. He would throw that low fastball and had a cutter or slider as well as an up and down curveball,” Allen said. “That cutter or slider or whatever it was looked just like the fastball coming out of the hand. The last five seconds it would run as much as any pitch I’ve ever seen.”
In so many series finales, the Gamecocks got off to fast starts but struggled to do it Friday night against the Razorbacks.
Instead it was Arkansas jumping ahead, plating two runs in the third, getting one on three-straight singles and another on a run-plating fielder’s choice.
After a dominant outing against LSU last weekend, Will Sanders struggled some against a group of potent Arkansas hitters.
He’d get through five innings but gave up career-highs in runs allowed with four—two of which came on a two-out, two-strike home run in the fifth—and gave up six hits, the second most he’s allowed this season. The most was eight over eight innings against Georgia.
“Pitching wise I don’t know if I’d trade our pitching staff for anybody in the country,” Kingston said. “I love our pitching staff and we pitch at an absolutely elite level.”
The loss Friday ends the Gamecocks’ streak of four consecutive series wins and is the first series loss at home this season. It ends with the Gamecocks being outscored 13-8.
“We’re really close. We’re really close. We leave this weekend and now 10 weeks into the season,” Kingston said. “Our RPI is going to be ranked top 10 in the country and I don’t think any one in the country has faced as much high level competition as we are and we’re 25-12 with a top 10 RPI and I still think our best days are ahead of us.”
