South Carolina dropped their first series of the season at Ole Miss. After winning the first game 6-1, they lost 10-2 and 7-6.
Breaking it Down…Friday night the Gamecocks took the lead early. Scott Wingo was hit by a pitch and scored on a Brady Thomas single. In the second DeSean Anderson drove in Evan Marzilli. In the Third Ole Miss answered with a run of their own. After that they couldn’t solve Michael Roth. As the game went on the Gamecocks’ bats became stronger. In the sixth Robert Beary drove in Adrian Morales. In the seventh Wingo and Christian Walker scored. In the eighth Beary scored the final run on Wingo’s squeeze bunt. John Taylor came in to close the game in the ninth and retired the side in order.
On Saturday USC came out looking for the series win. They ran into pitching trouble early and it made for a long day. Colby Holmes gave up two runs in the first inning and gave up another in the second before being pulled in favor of Tyler Webb. Webb stopped the bleeding in the second but gave up a run of his own in the third. In the sixth Webb was replaced by Jose Mata after giving up a lead off double and then a single. The Gamecocks gave up three runs in the third as they tried to stop the rebels with John Taylor, Bryan Harper and finally Logan Munson in addition to Webb and Mata. Ole Miss poured it on with three more in the seventh to score an even 10. The only offense the Gamecocks had all day came in the fourth. Christian Walker walked, and Brady Thomas singled. Jake Williams drove in one, and Evan Marzilli drove in the other.
USC had won every Sunday game in conference this season, but they fell short in Oxford. Like Saturday, the Gamecocks were quickly down 2-0 after one inning. After three innings they were down 3-0 and had brought Adam Westmoreland in to replace Forrest Koumas. The offense, which had been dormant on Saturday, came to life with two runs in the fourth. Williams tripled in Brady Thomas and Morales singled Williams home to cut the lead to 3-2. After Ole Miss went down in order in the fourth, USC took control with three runs in the fifth. Steven Neff started the inning with a double and knocked Ole Miss’s starter out of the game. With two outs Brady Thomas tripled in two runs and came around to score himself on Morales’s RBI single.
It felt as if the Gamecocks were going to pull out another Sunday win and another series win. Then a lead off walk was quickly turned into a run in the bottom of the fifth. After the walk, the Rebels got a home run to tie the game. John Taylor came in and quieted the rally to leave the game tied at 5. Taylor would give up a run in the sixth and then be replaced by Matt Price. Trailing 6-5 in the seventh, the Gamecocks tied the game when Evan Marzilli scored on a hard hit ball to the shortstop by Morales. Neither team was able to take the lead and control of the game until the bottom of the ninth. Once again a lead off walk was the culprit. The walked batsman was singled to third and then a sacrifice fly ended the game.
Stars of the Series…Michael Roth…W, 8 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 K, 1 BB, 1 HBP…Brady Thomas…4-13, 3 RBI, 2B, 3B…Jake Williams…3 RBI, 3B…Robert Beary…5-11…Steven Neff…3-8, 3 2B…
This and That…The Gamecocks dropped their first series of the year…They are now 37-10 and 18-6 in conference…USC now trails Vanderbilt by 1 game in the East and is tied with Florida…Carolina remains in the Top 5 in all 5 polls….They are ranked 2, 3, 3, 4 and 4…
What to Take From the Weekend…Nothing. This was bound to happen. It was a bit unreasonable to expect this team (or any team) to win every weekend series in the SEC. Even though some fans were hoping that might happen (I was one of them), it shouldn’t be a disappointment that it didn’t work out that way.
It took an offense power outage on Saturday and back to back days of less than stellar performance to produce a one run series loss. That’s not the kind of thing to worry about … unless it continues.
We don’t know what to take away from this weekend yet. We’ll have to wait to see how the team responds to make that call. If they retreat into themselves and fail to regain the form they’ve held all season, then it’s time to worry. If they shake it off as an aberration and return to normal, then they’ll be fine. I’m not sure which way they’ll go, but does anyone want to bet against this team?
Up Next…South Carolina comes home for a busy week. On Tuesday they play Presbyterian, and on Wednesday they play Charleston Southern. Arkansas comes to Carolina stadium for the weekend series. Friday night’s game is at 8 pm on ESPNU. Saturday’s game is at 4:30 on SportSouth; Sunday’s game is at 1:30 on Cox Sports.
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