Arkansas 4, No. 17 USC 2

Baseball: Gamecocks' postseason hopes dim

Arkansas finishes sweep to put USC on the outside looking in for SEC and NCAA tourney berths

By NATE ALLEN - Special to The State

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Ranked No. 17 by Baseball America, the South Carolina Gamecocks seem certain to be invited later this month to play in NCAA regionals.

Right now, though, they aren’t fit to play in the SEC tournament.

Swept by Arkansas following the Razorbacks’ 4-2 victory Sunday at Baum Stadium, the Gamecocks (34-18, 13-14 SEC) are fourth in the SEC EAST and ninth overall in the league standings, a half behind eighth-place Arkansas.

Only the league’s top eight finishers advance to the SEC tournament, which starts May 21 in Hoover, Ala.

All that is left for the Gamecocks — besides hosting The Citadel in a Tuesday night nonconference game — is a three-game series with Tennessee beginning Thursday in Columbia.

“We’ve got a good RPI and we’ve got a good record, but we’ve got to go win games,” South Carolina coach Ray Tanner said. “It’s time to win games. We’ve got four left, all at home thank goodness.”

Starting with Friday night’s pinch-hit game-winning grand slam by the Razorbacks, Fayetteville was unkind to the Gamecocks.

USC wasted a strong pitching effort by starter Nick Godwin in Saturday’s 6-3 loss, and the Gamecocks kept up the trend Sunday as Blake Cooper pitched strongly into the eighth inning, giving up just six hits.

Two of those hits — Aaron Murphree’s two-out RBI single in second and Andy Wilkins two-out, two-run double in the third —doomed Cooper and USC.

Casey Coon added some insurance for the Razorbacks with an eighth-inning RBI single.

The Gamecocks were blanked for eight innings by Dallas Keuchel before James Darnell’s two-run homer off reliever Mike Bolsinger.

Bolsinger, Saturday’s winner in relief, retired the next three batter to preserve Keuchel’s victory and career-high, 10-strikeout effort.

“Dallas Keuchel pitched a tremendous game for Arkansas,” Tanner said. “You’ve got to give him credit. He was really spectacular. He hit his spots and was able to get his changeup in there. Our guy, Blake Cooper, battled extremely hard as well, but we didn’t threaten until the very end.”

The Gamecocks did get runners at first and second with one out in the third, but Keuchel retired Whit Merrifield on a fly and striking out Justin Smoak. He also struck out Harley Lail and Kyle Enders in the seventh after Andrew Crisp reached on a one-out error and stole second.

Keuchel exceeded the expectations of Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn after the sophomore lefty was hit hard his past two SEC starts.

“I won’t say it was unexpected, but I didn’t expect him to go 8 plus,” Van Horn said. “A great job by Dallas.”

Keuchel added: “I just tried to keep the ball down because South Carolina is not ranked 12th for nothing.”