Gamecocks suffer first home loss of the season in 13 innings
Before heading to Nashville for a weekend series against No. 3 Vanderbilt, the Gamecocks hosted the College of Charleston Cougars in what turned out to be a wild 6-5 loss in 13 innings.
Sophomore Tyler Haswell was given the nod at pitcher after posting a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings scattered across five appearances this season. The right-hander gave the Gamecocks three innings, allowing three hits and one run in that span.
The Gamecock offense was baffled. Despite putting four runners on base in the game’s first two innings, the Gamecocks could not plate any runs until left fielder Alex Destino’s routine grounder hit the first base bag and cascaded into right field for an RBI double. It was his second of the game, the first multi-double game of his collegiate career.
Junior Matt Vogel replaced Haswell at the start of the fourth inning and the right-hander again struggled to find the strike zone. Entering the game with five walks in four innings, Vogel allowed three free passes in 1 ⅓ innings. Aided by two errors and a wild pitch, the Cougars plated three runs in that stretch. Vogel was charged with two earned runs, doubling his previous season total.
Down 4-1, the Gamecocks scratched across a run in the sixth inning on a 1-3 groundout by D.C. Arendas which plated Jonah Bride, who reached base on a hit-by-pitch.
Pitchers Brandon Murray, Taylor Widener and Tyler Johnson combined to hold the Cougars scoreless over the last 4 ⅔ innings and keep South Carolina within striking distance, and in the ninth inning, the Gamecocks finally cashed in.
After an Arendas strikeout, shortstop Marcus Mooney reached on a bloop double to right and eventually scored on an error by the second baseman on what could have been a game-ending double play. Instead, the inning continued and Destino again delivered.
With two outs and runners on first and second, Destino was thrown a 1-1 fastball and he rocketed it back to center just over centerfielder Morgan Phillips’ outstretched glove for a ground-rule double that tied the game at four.
The teams remained scoreless until the 12th inning when Phillips hit a solo homer into the Cougar bullpen to give College of Charleston a 5-4 lead.
South Carolina again responded, as pinch-runner Clarke Scolamiero scored on another E-4 off the bat of Chris Cullen.
In the 13th, Charleston again pushed a run across, this time with a walk and some nifty baserunning, taking a 6-5 lead into the bottom of the frame.
A two-out double put the tying run on second, but John Jones grounded out to end the game and give the Cougars the 6-5 win in four hours and 43 minutes.
The Gamecocks had a chance, but missed opportunities ultimately doomed the Gamecocks and left the team with a disappointing loss.
“We had every reason and every right to play the game the right way tonight,” head coach Chad Holbrook said. “We just didn’t execute the way we’ve been executing and play the way that we’ve been playing. We try to pride ourselves on playing great defense and making it awfully hard on our opponents to score. A couple times tonight we didn’t do that, and that ended up costing us a tight, tight game against a really good opponent … We should have played one of our best games tonight and we didn’t.”
Jeckyll and Hyde Defense
The Gamecock defense continued its up-and-down trend on Tuesday. Catcher Chris Cullen bounced a throw to second on an attempted steal attempt and Destino dropped a routine flyball on what would have been the third out of the fifth inning. Instead, a run scored. Jonah Bride was also charged with his first error of the season on a hard grounder that squeaked under his glove at third.
“We dropped a flyball,” Holbrook said. “Can’t throw a ball to second base on a guy we should’ve thrown out by about 10 feet, and we can’t block the ball from going into the outfield. I think we gave them two or three of their first four runs. That’s not how we play, we gotta try to make people earn every run that they get. We didn’t do that tonight and against a really good College of Charleston team the result is a difficult loss.”
Of course, with this Gamecock team, there were plenty of good defensive plays as well. Tolbert caught a tough foul ball as he was leaning over the railing and Arendas made a tremendous stop on a scorching grounder. Mooney made several impressive plays and Matt Williams saved the Gamecock defense from a fourth error on a nifty tag at first in the top of the 10th inning.
Still, the Gamecock defense left plenty to be desired on a night when the team played far from perfect in all phases of the game.
Reagan’s Streak Broken
Entering Tuesday’s contest, relief pitcher Josh Reagan had been nothing short of dominant, allowing just nine hits and no runs in 19 innings. Head coach Chad Holbrook went to his ace in the 10th inning and was content to ride him until the end.
Reagan cruised, retiring the first seven batters he faced until Morgan Phillips, who was 1-4 with three strikeouts on the day, hit a towering shot that gave the Cougars a 5-4 lead and raised Reagan’s ERA to 0.41.
Up Next
South Carolina (23-3, 6-0 SEC) will travel to Nashville for a three-game series at No. 3 Vanderbilt beginning Friday at 8 p.m.
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