LEXINGTON, KY.—There’s no place like home, and the Gamecocks are figuring that out early through the first weekends of SEC play.
Through 30 games this season, South Carolina’s picked up 17 wins, all from the friendly confines of Founders Park. The team is 0-7 now in either neutral site or road games, including a 14-1 blowout loss to Kentucky Friday night.
“We need to be better. Across the board we need to be better,” head coach Mark Kingston said after the series-opening loss. “Hitting, pitching, defense, we need to play better on the road. We need to show we’re tough enough to play on the road.”
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The Gamecocks (17-12, 4-6 SEC) fell into a big hole early and couldn’t scratch their way back thanks to the pitching staff issuing a season-high 11 walks.
In arguably his roughest outing of the year, Adam Hill gave up a career-high seven walks and seven runs—six earned—which is as many runs he's given up in his last five starts combined.
His three innings pitched were the lowest since going 2.2 innings against Texas A&M his freshman year.
After pitching around a two-on, two-out jam in the first, Hill (3-3, 4.79 ERA) gave up three runs in the second after back-to-back RBI singles and a throwing error by Chris Cullen.
Four more came across in the third after a bases-loaded walk and a bases-clearing double from Tristan Pompey.
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The game was busted wide open in a five-run sixth inning after Hunter Lomas gave up a bases loaded walk and a grand slam.
Of the seven runners that came across with Hill on the mound, six reached via the walk.
“Any time we walk guys it’s frustrating,” Kingston said. “That team is really good. They score a lot of runs—batting .320 as a team is impressive, and when you help them that much you have no shot.”
Meanwhile, South Carolina hitters mustered five hits against reigning SEC Pitcher of the Year Sean Hjelle and seven for the game. They'd strike out 11 times Friday and put just three runners in scoring position all night.
Their lone run came on a Matt Williams RBI single in the seventh inning. Kentucky would immediately get the run back in the bottom half of the inning on a Luke Heyer solo home run.
The Gamecocks hit just 2-for-14 with runners on base Friday night.
“He’s got really good stuff, he’s got really good down angle,” Kingston said of Hjelle. “When he got ahead he was able to put us away.”
Now the Gamecocks have to try and regroup with a quick turnaround trying to scratch across their first non-home win of the season Saturday.
It’s easier said than done, but that was the message Kingston delivered to his team after the game
“When we’re at home, our record’s really good. When we go on the road, not so much,” he said. “When everything’s not perfect for you, you still need to be able to play good baseball. We need to prove we can do that.”
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Player of the game: Matt Williams was the lone Gamecock to drive in a run Friday. He finished going 1-for-3.
Pivotal moment: Tristan Pompey, down to his last strike with two outs in the sixth, drew a walk with two outs and the next pitch was a grand slam to make it a double-digit deficit.
Up next: Game two of the series is scheduled tentatively for Saturday at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network, however snow in the forecast could change that. Cody Morris (5-2, 4.46 ERA) will start.
