South Carolina falls to NC A&T, shut out at home for first time in two years
South Carolina baseball had its chances to push a run across the plate Tuesday night against North Carolina A&T.
But the Gamecocks’ offense vanished any time a runner reached base, and a strong pitching performance from USC went to waste in a 2-0 defeat at Founders Park.
It marks the first time Carolina (16-9) has been shut out at home since UNC Greensboro did so on Feb. 19, 2017.
Freshman Dylan Harley, making his first start in three weeks since being demoted from the weekend rotation, breezed through the first 2 2/3 innings, giving up a leadoff walk but nothing else.
But in the bottom of the third, Harley issued a two-out walk, and the Aggies made him pay. A double from Tony Mack drove in one run, and AJ Hunt followed with a groundball single to left field. Mack was waved home and beaten by the throw, but the ball popped out of catcher Luke Berryhill’s glove, giving NC A&T a 2-0 advantage.
That was the last baserunner Harley permitted all day — he exited after throwing 75 pitches over 4 2/3 innings, his longest outing of the season. He was replaced by USC’s usual Friday night starter Wesley Sweatt who was nearly perfect, giving up one hit and no walks over 3 1/3 shutout innings, aided by solid infield defense from Olson and junior shortstop George Callil.
“(Harley) threw a lot of strikes, he had good stuff. Fastball was up to 93 (miles per hour), change-up was at a better speed to play off his fastball, it was in that 80 to 81 range, so he started getting some swings and misses on it,” South Carolina coach Mark Kingston said. “He threw strikes, except for the two-out walk that led to their two runs. It was a better outing. He’s making progress.”
For North Carolina A&T, junior right-hander Michael Johnson went five innings, giving up three hits and two walks but no runs to move to 4-1 on the year with an 1.80 ERA. Johnson was replaced by junior reliever Leon Davidson, who threw two no-hit innings and worked his way around a pair of walks. Seniors Leon Hunter and Roberto Negron capped off the game.
“Not good enough. (Eleven) more strikeouts tonight, so not good enough,” Kingston said of his team’s at-bats. “ ... Obviously the stats bear out that they didn’t throw guys out there that weren’t good. They threw good guys out there. But you’re at South Carolina, you should be able to handle that.”
South Carolina got its best chance of the night in the fourth, with a one-out double to the left field corner from senior third baseman Jacob Olson. A sacrifice fly and walk from senior first baseman Chris Cullen then put runners on the corners, but a strikeout ended the inning.
The Gamecocks also threatened in the bottom of the ninth when sophomore catcher Luke Berryhill led off with a double to right field. He advanced to third on a groundout but was stranded after two strikeouts.
All told, the Gamecocks were 0 for 10 with runners on base on the night. They have scored 10 runs in the past four games.
“We need to get better. We’ve known that for a while,” Kingston said of his team’s anemic offense. “We need to get better, period. We need to get better, and I don’t need to see the stats right now to see that.”
Next: South Carolina will host No. 15 Auburn at Founders Park this weekend. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 7 p.m.
This story was originally published March 26, 2019 at 9:28 PM.
