Texas A&M hurlers make Gamecock hitters look feeble again in Game 2 loss
Different night, same script.
For the second straight game, Texas A&M’s pitchers made the South Carolina hitters look feeble at the plate, limiting the Gamecocks to three hits while striking out seven batters in USC’s 5-2 loss Saturday night before a disappointed sellout crowd of 8,242 fans at Founders Park.
By virtue of its fourth loss in the last five games, USC fell to 37-13 overall, 16-9 in the SEC and remained one game behind Florida (17-8) in the SEC East standings. The Gamecocks stand fourth in the overall SEC standings behind Texas A&M (18-8), Florida and Mississippi State (17-9) and ahead of fifth-place Ole Miss (beat Kentucky Saturday on walk-off homer) by percentage points.
The Gamecocks look to avoid the sweep Sunday at 4 p.m. Freshman Adam Hill is the scheduled starting pitcher for USC.
Vanderbilt and Florida lock horns at 1 p.m. in the rubber game of their series in Gainesville.
Braden Webb (9-4) suffered his second straight loss, but the mound was hardly the place of Chad Holbrook’s biggest concern.
Saturday, the Gamecocks collected just one hit off two Texas A&M pitchers over the final 5.2 innings following a solo homer by Madison Stokes into the left field stands in the bottom of the fourth.
“It was the same story tonight as it was last night,” USC coach Chad Holbrook said. “Their pitchers pretty much manhandled and dominated our hitters. We are forcing our pitchers to be darn near perfect against perhaps the best offensive team in the country. We are asking too much from our pitching staff.”
Aggies reliever Andrew Vinson faced just one batter over the minimum in his 4.1 inning stint. Only four balls reached the outfield during that span. The lone Gamecocks scoring threat when Vinson was on the mound came in the eighth inning when they got a runner to third with two outs on a fielder’s choice, groundout and wild pitch.
Afterwards, Holbrook vowed lineup changes for Sunday’s Game 3 in an effort to ignite the offense, which has managed just two runs and eight hits in the first two losses to the Aggies.
“We have to figure out a way to get a lineup in there that can score a few runs and get some hits and play with some competitiveness and determination,” Holbrook said. “Those are all the things we try to pride ourselves on around here.
“The last two games we have lacked those things. Hopefully, I’ll put the right guys in there tomorrow that can give us a spark and make something happen. We’ll see if we can play a more competitive game against those guys.”
Early BP? Been there, done that.
“We’ve been hitting early BP every single day,” Holbrook said. “Maybe we should stop that. It’s not working. Our kids have worked hard. They have swung until their hands bleed. Ultimately, it’s not what you do in practice. You have to do it between the white lines when the chips are down. Right now, we’re struggling to get that done.”
In the two losses to Texas A&M, the Gamecocks are batting a lowly .074 (2-27) with runners on base, .063 (1-16) with runners in scoring position and .100 (2-20) with two outs.
Obviously, those type of numbers won’t beat many SEC teams.
“I hope our guys are ticked off,’ Holbrook said. “Right now, we’re looking for answers. Somebody has to strap it one and make something happen. Right now, we’re just searching and wondering what happened. There is a sense of urgency to figure this thing out and figure it out in a hurry.”
What Holbrook can’t do, of course, is go out and secure some new players in time for Sunday’s series finale at Founders Park.
“Our guys need to look in the mirror because we don’t have any other players,” Holbrook said. “They have to go out and play. They have to be able to execute and have some more competitive at-bats than what we’ve had against a good team.
“I don’t have any new players walking through the door. Our players are our players. Guys just need to play up to their potential. It’s disappointing for me and our players that we can’t perform a little bit better than how we’ve performed the last two days.”
The Gamecocks put two runners into scoring position with two outs in the bottom of the first, but Jonah Bride fanned to end the inning.
After a leadoff single in the top of the first, Webb dominated the Texas A&M hitters, striking out five in a row from the first to the third innings. Eventually, he set down nine consecutive Aggie batters until a leadoff single in the top of the fourth.
USC took a 1-0 lead – scoring their first run of the series in the process - in the bottom of the third on a RBI groundout by Alex Destino.
By the time the top of the fourth ended, Texas A&M had scored three times off Webb to take a 3-1 lead. The first run crossed home largely as a product of Gamecock errors. Webb’s errant pickoff throw allowed a Texas A&M runner to stroll to second and, moments later, he scored when Stokes allowed a hard grounder behind second base slip through his legs into center field.
Two batters later came the exclamation point as the Aggies’ surge was capped by a long two-run homer off the bat of Ryne Birk that landed somewhere on the street far beyond the right-field fence.
Stokes pulled the Gamecocks within a single run at 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth with his first career homer, a solo blast into the left field stands.
Webb escaped a major jam (1&3, no outs) in the top of the fifth when the Gamecocks pulled off a 1-3-2 double play. Webb fielded the ball, threw to first for the first out and Matt Williams fired home to nail the TAM runner trying to score from third with a head first slide.
Texas A&M scored single runs in the sixth (RBI single) and eighth (sacrifice fly) to steadily pull away from the Gamecocks.
The Gamecocks’ frustrating night offensively was exemplified by the bottom of the seventh when Chris Cullen led off with a single – just USC’s third hit of the night – to bring the tying run to the plate.
But Cullen was quickly erased on a 4-6-3 double play off the bat of Matt Williams.
LINESCORE
TAM (39-10) – 000 301 010 = 5-9-0
USC (37-13) – 001 100 000 = 2-3-2
WP – Andrew Vinson (3-2)
LP – Braden Webb (9-4)
SV – None
HR – USC, Madison Stokes (4th, none on), TAM, Ryne Birk (4th, 1 on)
RBI – Madison Stokes (1), Alex Destino (1)
LOB – USC 5, TAM 8
A – 8,242.
Time – 3:10
Gamecock Pitchers: Braden Webb (5.2 IP, 97 pitches), Reed Scott (3.1 IP, 56 pitches)
HOW THE RUNS SCORED:
USC 3rd – Hopkins singled to left, Hopkins stole second, Cone hit by pitch, Mooney flied to center, Hopkins advanced to third and Cone advanced to second on wild pitch, Destino grounded to first (RBI), DTW struckout. 1 RUN, 1 HIT (USC 1-0).
TAM 4th – Choruby singled to center, Choruby advanced to second on throwing error on pickoff attempt (E1), White reached on fielding error (E4) and run scored, Melton flied to left, Birk homered to right (2 RBI), Barash doubled to left, Banks fouled out to left, Gideon struckout. 3 RUNS, 3 HITS (TAM 3-1).
USC 4th - Bride struck out, Stokes homered to left (RBI), Cullen grounded to pitcher, Williams grounded to second. 1 RUN, 1 HIT (TAM 3-2).
TAM 6th – Melton grounded to shortstop, Birk singled to center, Birk stole second, Bedford struck out, Banks singled to left (RBI), Banks advanced to second on wild pitch, Gideon walked, <Scott for Webb>, Homan flied to right. 1 RUN, 2 HIT (TAM 4-2).
TAM 8th – Birk doubled to left-center, Bedford sacrificed (5-4), Banks intentionally walked, Gideon stroked sacrifice fly to right (RBI), Banks advanced to second on wild pitch, Homan grounded to second. 1 RUN, 1 HIT (TAM 5-2).
