Vols batter Gamecocks’ postseason hopes

This weekend was supposed to allow South Carolina to remember what momentum feels like.

The Gamecocks hadn’t experienced much of it since their 10-game winning streak in March. After two wins last week against defending national champion Vanderbilt, however, three games against SEC cellar dweller Tennessee appeared to give South Carolina a chance to win back-to-back SEC series for the first time this season.

Or not.

Instead, the Gamecocks followed Friday night’s 4-0 win with a 4-3 walk-off loss a day later and a 10-4 defeat at the hands of the Volunteers on Sunday in front of 2,121 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The series loss by the Gamecocks (26-19, 9-12 SEC) increases the chances that they will miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999.

It is the Gamecocks’ fifth series loss in seven SEC sets.

With three SEC series left on the Gamecocks’ schedule – including sets against top-five teams in Texas A&M and LSU – USC coach Chad Holbrook said the possibility of an at-large berth is no longer worthy of discussion.

“I don’t think about the postseason, because as we stand here right now, I don’t think we deserve it,” Holbrook said after the game. “Could we play our way into it? Maybe. But as we sit here right now, I’m trying to get better for Friday against Auburn, because where we stand right now and how we’ve played and where we’re standing, we don’t deserve to even think about the postseason. We’ve put ourselves in this position with the way that we’ve played.

“We either dig ourselves out of it or regroup and get ready for next year.”

The Gamecocks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Senior Elliott Caldwell drove in two runs with a triple to left-center that gave him South Carolina’s single-season record for triples with seven. Freshman Alex Destino followed by pounding a double into the left field corner to score Caldwell.

Tennessee answered with two runs in the bottom of the first, however, and reliever Kyle Serrano held the Gamecocks to one run in five innings of relief from the third through the seventh.

USC lefty Josh Reagan was dominant from the second through the fifth, but the Vols got to him in the sixth. He walked sophomore Nick Senzel to start the inning, then gave up a single to Simcox and an RBI double to junior Christin Stewart that tied the game at 3.

“I felt good,” Reagan said. “Then I walked the first guy of the inning, and it spiraled down from there.”

Though Reagan had thrown 66 pitches, Holbrook pulled him for freshman right-hander Brandon Murray. Tennessee junior designated hitter Andrew Lee, the first batter Murray faced, crushed a 1-0 fastball off the right-center field wall for a two-run double to make it 5-3. He later scored on an RBI single by Tennessee junior Chris Hall, and the Vols added two more runs in a six-run sixth.

South Carolina scored a run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Caldwell, but the Vols put the game out of reach with a two-run single by senior Parker Wormsley in the seventh.

The Gamecocks still hope they can manage a postseason that goes past the SEC Tournament, though they recognize the clock is ticking.

“I think we can sneak in there,” Caldwell said. “We know what we have to do the next few weekends. We can sneak in in the end. … We’ve just gotta fight.”

Injury update: USC second baseman Max Schrock missed his second straight game Sunday with a left Achilles tendon strain.

This story was originally published April 26, 2015 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Vols batter Gamecocks’ postseason hopes."