South Carolina sacrifices division lead with 2 losses against Florida
Sloppy play dictated what turned out to be a battle for first place in the SEC East in Sunday’s matchup game between the No. 4 South Carolina baseball team and No. 13 Florida.
The Gators (23-13, 9-6 SEC) overcame a late deficit and five errors to beat the Gamecocks 6-5, giving Florida two wins out of the three games played at Carolina Stadium over the weekend.
“I thought we had it in the bag today, but just couldn’t hang on to it,” junior first baseman Kyle Martin said.
Freshman right-hander Wil Crowe pitched effectively, but received the loss to move to 6-2 on the year. He went 7.1 innings, allowing five runs with only two of them earned on 10 hits to go along with a walk and four strikeouts.
With a 4-2 lead in the top of the eighth inning, Crowe was looking strong until he allowed three-consecutive singles to load the bases. Freshman Taylor Widener then came in to pitch from the designated hitter spot. He faced Florida freshman Peter Alonso, who hit a hard ground ball towards the middle that bounced off shortstop Marcus Mooney’s glove, allowing two runs to score and tie the game.
Despite Mooney’s error, head coach Chad Holbrook said his confidence in the sophomore isn’t shaken.
“If there’s a person I want the ball hit to in that situation, it’s Marcus,” Holbrook said after the game. “It was just a tricky hop and a hard field and a hot day, it just didn’t go in his glove.”
After Alonso, Florida’s Zack Powers roped an RBI-double off the wall and freshman Buddy Reed followed with an RBI single to left field to make it a 6-4 Florida lead.
Freshman Jordan Gore made it a one-run deficit for the Gamecocks when he homered in the bottom half of the inning, but South Carolina could not manage any further offense to win.
The Gamecocks (28-7, 8-7 SEC) capitalized early on a couple of errors by Alonso, who ended up totaling three for the game. Still, it was not enough, as South Carolina left 12 men on base in Sunday’s game, which made it 33 left on base for the series.
Saturday’s game held similar circumstances for the Gamecocks in their 4-3 loss that went 13 innings. South Carolina had a 3-0 lead going into the eighth inning. Junior reliever Cody Mincey had a second-consecutive rough outing after coming in to relieve sophomore starter Jack Wynkoop — who threw seven innings — allowing one earned run on five hits, one walk and three strikeouts.
Freshman A.J. Puk doubled off of Mincey to cut the Gamecocks’ lead to 3-1 and sophomore Richie Martin soon followed with an RBI single.
Junior closer Joel Seddon blew his first save of the season for the Gamecocks after allowing an RBI sacrifice fly in the ninth frame to tie the game at 3. Seddon pitched an unusual five innings and earned the loss after another Gator sacrifice fly in the top of the 13th inning.
The Gamecocks won Friday’s matchup 4-1 behind seven innings from junior lefty Jordan Montgomery — now 5-2 on the year — in which he allowed one run on seven hits with eight strikeouts and just one walk. Seddon earned his ninth save of the season and at the time was in the midst of a 19-inning streak without giving up a run.
South Carolina is going through a rough spell of injuries with junior Connor Bright hyper-extending his elbow in Saturday’s game, which sidelined him Sunday. Sophomore second baseman Max Schrock missed the entirety of the Florida series with a high fever and junior Joey Pankake left Sunday’s game with a strained hamstring after charging in hard on an infield single.
Holbrook said the Gamecocks will have to prepare to play without Schrock and Pankake just in case and mentioned players like Gore and junior Patrick Harrington may be seeing more time with how they’ve been performing. But, Holbrook did not blame injuries for the loss.
“Obviously, it’s a disappointing loss, a disappointing series loss,” Holbrook said. “We had a chance to win all three games and really just couldn’t hold a lead there as far as today’s game.”