People will remember South Carolina lost the latest edition of the Palmetto Baseball Showdown series less than HOW they lost.
Less than 24 hours after allowing a three-run lead in the late innings slip away and seeing the potential tying run thrown out at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, the Gamecocks’ frustration level conceivably reached an all-time high in Chad Holbrook’s five seasons as head coach in a 5-3 loss in 11 innings Sunday afternoon to bitter rival Clemson.
Somehow, the Gamecocks dropped a series they could have easily swept had they executed in the late innings of the final two games. Instead, USC is 7-5 and facing a mountain of questions less than two weeks before the start of SEC play March 17 at Tennessee.
Five home games this week (The Citadel, Winthrop and 3-game series vs. Michigan State) could aid mending the heartbreak, but only if the Gamecock perform a heckuva lot better in crunch time.
Seth Beer’s epic two-out, game-tying solo homer off USC reliever Josh Reagan in the top of the ninth (and the decision to continue pitching to him when the count reached 3-0) when Clemson was down to its last strike will unquestionably grab headlines and dominate message boards, but that was only a singular moment in a four-hour, 40-minute marathon.
“Sometimes baseball can be cruel and sometimes it can be exhilarating,” Holbrook said. “We were on the cruel end of it today but my players competed and brought great effort. (But) it’s a tough loss because we had control of the game and were one pitch away.
“That’s the beauty of baseball. There is no clock. You have to get 27 outs. Today we got 26. Our kids are hurting right now. But they’ll bounce back.”
Holbrook defended the decision to continue pitching to Beer in the ninth after Reagan threw three consecutive balls to start the at-bat.
“He got one swing,” Holbrook said. “We were one strike away. You take your chances. I’m not going to walk him (and put the tying run on base) left on left. If he hits a home run, he ties it but he doesn’t win it. I love Josh Reagan. He has given this program every ounce of talent in his body. He just left a pitch up and a great player put a great swing on it.”
Haunting the Gamecocks as well was Jonah Bride’s out-of-character throwing error on a routine grounder that should have ended the top of the seventh on a quiet note. Instead, the miscue opened the door to Clemson scoring the game-tying run on a RBI single.
In addition, the Gamecocks stranded 15 runners, a lot even for an 11-inning game. They had opportunities to win the game in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings but failed to execute – and produce - every time.
The failings in the bottom of the ninth could linger if the Gamecocks let them. They had runners on first and second, nobody out when Holbrook pinch hit Justin Row for USC’s best slugger, Alex Destino, but also a double play possibility had hit a grounder to a Clemson infielder.
Row popped up a bunt in front of the plate that the Clemson catcher caught when he dove headfirst. Then, with the bases loaded, Madison Stokes struck out.
“I wanted to stay out of the double play,” Holbrook said. “Alex hits a lot of ground balls. He’s a not good bunter. I felt had we gotten the runner to third base with less than two outs, we were going to win the game. Justin Row is our best bunter. He just didn’t get it down.”
In the bottom of the 10th, the Gamecocks again put the winning run into scoring position with less than two outs, but couldn’t capitalize as Matt Williams grounded into a 6-3 double play that was a virtual replay of the three twin-killings turned by the Gamecocks on Friday night.
“Even when they got new life with two outs and two strikes in the ninth, we still had opportunities to win,” Holbrook said. “We didn’t hang our heads. We put people (on base) with a chance to win. But we couldn’t get that big hit to fall.”
Pouring salt into the wounds of frustration, Clemson scored the eventual game-winning run when, with a Clemson runner on third, Tyler Haswell threw a wild pitch while trying to intentionally walk Beer. Moments later, Clemson added s second run on a RBI single.
“We had a kid out there that hadn’t been in that situation,” Holbrook said. “I feel terrible for Tyler. Obviously, he wasn’t very comfortable. He made a mistake.”
Seven Gamecock pitchers combined for 10 walks, three wild pitches and two hit batters.
Bottom line? Multiple Holbrook decisions blew up in his face, USC committed an error at an inopportune time, couldn’t deliver a clutch hit when it needed one, made one too many bad pitches and simply failed to execute when it had to.
This day on this stage, those costly mistakes were enough to snatch a gut-wrenching defeat from the jaws of a possibly exhilarating victory, and produce a third straight series loss to Clemson.
