Gamecock lineup looks to ‘take another step’ after dropping series to No. 1 Arkansas
Across a baseball marathon Thursday and Friday — 27 innings in fewer than 27 hours — South Carolina’s lineup had its moments against No. 1 Arkansas.
There was a smoked double down the line in Game 1 from sophomore catcher Colin Burgess, driving in senior outfielder Andrew Eyster all the way from first. There was the four-run sixth inning in Game 2, followed by a two-run eighth, as the Gamecocks piled on seven hits in those two frames alone. And of course, there was a mammoth home run from junior outfielder Brady Allen in Game 3, a 430-foot blast that cleared the concourse in left field and sailed out the tunnel in Founders Park.
But those moments didn’t come often enough, not even as No. 11 USC’s pitching staff did an admirable job locking up one of the nation’s top scoring offenses. And at the end of it all, that’s what separated the Gamecocks and Razorbacks in a series in which Arkansas took two out of three.
“Hitting-wise, we need to take another step,” said USC coach Mark Kingston. “We can be shut down at times by the best pitching in the country, and we just need to do a better job of scrapping and finding ways to create runs when we’re not getting a lot of hits. We’re a very momentum-based offense, and we can really come at you in waves, but we need to do a better job when we’re not quite getting as many hits.”
That momentum-based hitting was evident in Friday’s doubleheader — outside of the seven hits the Gamecocks collected in Game 1’s sixth and eighth innings, they had just four hits and two walks over 16 innings.
“I think that’s why we’re a good team. That’s why we’re not necessarily a great team yet, because we’re very inconsistent,” Allen said. “But as we’ve seen in the past, when we do hit, that’s how dangerous we can be, and I don’t even think we’ve shown our full potential. So we’re just really gonna have to focus towards coming up the back part of the SEC series we have coming up and the postseason.”
Allen cited a lack of planning as the biggest issue for the Gamecocks at the moment — hitters are approaching the plate and simply trying to react what they see from opposing pitchers as opposed to waiting for their pitch.
Kingston, for his part, cited a need to get several individual players going to spark the entire group. Chief among those individuals is presumably junior Wes Clarke. Clarke started the season red hot, racking up national awards and putting up incredible numbers. Since the start of SEC play, though, he has cooled dramatically, hitting just .180 with three home runs in 18 games. That slump was particularly pronounced this weekend against Arkansas, when he went a combined 1 for 11 with six strikeouts.
“He’s getting pitched to. He’s a little bit behind on the fastball and he’s a little bit ahead of the offspeed pitches. We just have to help him. We know when he’s on, he’s one of the best hitters in the country. Right now, he’s not on. He’ll get back. There’s no doubt in our mind. He works too hard, he’s too talented. He’s a big part of our offense, and when he’s struggling, it kind of slows us down as a group.”
Strong pitching
While the hitting struggled, South Carolina’s pitching shone. Arkansas entered the weekend averaging 8.5 runs and 9.6 hits per game, but the Gamecock hurlers held them to 4.3 runs and 6.7 hits per game over three contests. Ace Thomas Farr had his longest outing of the season at seven innings, and the bullpen allowed just two earned runs in 10 1/3 innings.
“I believe our pitching’s as good as anybody in the country,” Kingston said. “They’re talented, they work hard, (pitching coach Skylar Meade) does a nice job preparing them. They’re poised, and again, that was the best offense supposedly in the country, and I thought we handled them for the most part about as well as anybody can handle them. It’ll pay off. And again, you gotta build programs starting with great pitching, and we’re doing that and that’s something we can take as we move forward.”
Next USC baseball game
Who: No. 11 South Carolina vs. The Citadel
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Founders Park
Watch: Streaming online on SEC Network Plus via WatchESPN
This story was originally published April 23, 2021 at 9:50 PM.
