FINAL: Fielding, Pitching Mistakes Cost Gamecocks Dearly In 4-3 Loss To No. 16 Alabama
After sweeping the then-No. 3 Vanderbilt Commodores this past weekend, and then playing past 10 o'clock against Presbyterian on Tuesday night, Mark Kingston and South Carolina's baseball began their third series of conference play against the No. 16-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide on Thursday night looking to secure just their second win of the season against a Power 5 team away from Founders Park.
The Gamecocks wouldn't take long to strike first in this one, as Parker Noland would leg-out a full-count double, and then would essentially be sacrificed over to third base and home plate off of two consecutive hard-grounders from Cole Messina and Kennedy Jones to score the first run of the game. Ethan Petry would then draw a walk and go from first base to home plate off a hard-hit fly ball to left from Talmadge LeCroy. While the batting lineup would go quiet over the next four innings, Eli Jones would parlay his masterclass performance from last weekend against Vanderbilt into Thursday night, only giving up one hit in the first four innings of play. However, a fielding error in the fifth inning followed by a wild pitch would cut South Carolina's lead to one.
In the seventh inning, Gavin Casas would laser a two-seam fastball over the rightfield wall to put the Gamecocks back up two runs. However, after going back out to mound in the bottom half of the same inning, Eli Jones would give up a leadoff double that would eventually be brought home off a fielder's choice to Will Tippett. With Chris Veach getting to two outs, he would give up a full-count walk to Gage Miller, and TJ McCants would nail a double to the right-centerfield wall off of Garrett Gainey's first pitch of the night to tie the game at 3 a piece.
In the bottom of the 8th inning, with a runner on third base, two outs, and a 1-2 count, Gainey would throw a pitch in the dirt that would get just far enough behind Messina to allow the Tide to score another run and take the lead. In the 9th inning,
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