South Carolina shuffles lineup but can’t solve Mississippi State in series opener
Brannon Jordan glared toward South Carolina catcher Colin Burgess’ mitt.
Behind Burgess, home plate umpire Marcus Pattillo offered an emphatic ring-up of Mississippi State’s towering left fielder Brad Cumbest. Frustrated with the call, Cumbest trudged his 6-foot-5, 250-pound frame back to the dugout.
On the mound, Jordan strutted counter-clockwise around the rubber and readied for another at-bat.
Jordan repeated these steps batter after batter Friday. Four times to be exact. After an erratic first inning, Jordan was dialed in, allowing just three runs — two of which came in the first frame — over six innings pitched. It didn’t matter.
Falling in line with Fridays past, South Carolina (27-16, 11-11 SEC) failed to find an offensive output to back up its Game 1 starter in a 9-0 loss to No. 4 MSU (34-10, 15-7 SEC).
“I mean there’s no magic wands,” Gamecocks head coach Mark Kingston said of how recent hitting woes can be addressed. “...You’ve got to watch video. You’ve got to work hard. You’ve got to make adjustments. You’ve got to prepare for the pitchers you’re facing and then you’ve just got to go out and do it.”
Heading into his start in Columbia, MSU ace Christian MacLeod hadn’t pitched more than five innings since early-April. Friday, though, MacLeod returned to his dominant self. He fanned six South Carolina batters while limiting the Gamecocks to just one hit in seven innings of work.
“I thought it was good for me to come up there with three pitches right off the bat,” MacLeod said. “Something I’ve been working on is having my best stuff in the first inning and cruising along with it, so that was a big part of it.”
MacLeod twice struck out Gamecock hitters with runners on base. First it was Burgess who went down swinging on three pitches in the third inning with runners on first and second.
David Mendham fared slightly better in the fifth inning, making it through five MacLeod pitches before bowing out with a runner on first.
“He was (upset) last weekend,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said in reference to MacLeod’s four-inning shelling against Texas A&M. “I think this was one of those where he’s coming out, he wanted to pitch well.”
Moving to the Friday slot in place of Thomas Farr, who will start Sunday’s contest, Bannon retired six of the seven batters he faced between the third and fourth innings to keep the Bulldogs largely at bay.
A smoked RBI single by MSU outfielder Tanner Allen in the fifth briefly disrupted Bannon’s momentum before he retired his next two batters to escape the frame.
“We’ve got to do a better job early in the game,” Kingston said. “It’s tough falling behind 2-0, but I give him a lot of credit. He really settled in after that.”
Following Bannon’s effective outing, Gamecocks reliever Magdiel Cotto fell back to earth after a dazzling two innings against North Florida on Wednesday.
Inserted in the seventh inning and South Carolina trailing 3-0, Cotto promptly allowed a single, walked a batter and plunked another to load the bases. MSU third baseman Kamren James belted the game-opening hit with a ripped double down the line to clear the bases.
Cotto then gifted another MSU run with a wild pitch that scored James from third, while Cumbest struck back from his earlier strikeout with a double down the first base line to bring Scotty Dubrule home.
“Just had a really tough time controlling the off-speed stuff for strikes tonight,” Kingston said of Cotto. “...When you’re playing a team like Mississippi State, if all you can throw is a fastball for a strike you’re going to get hammered.”
Allen, who finished with 3-for-4 with a pair of runs, notched his second RBI single of the night in the eighth for MSU’s final tally.
Now having dropped seven of its eight Friday Southeastern Conference contests — the lone win coming in a sweep of No. 10 Florida in late March — the Gamecocks continue a precarious plunge off of NCAA regional hosting responsibility.
Frustrated with the effort, Kingston spent a lengthy period postgame speaking with his team before heading to his usual press conference. Players continued the conversation once Kingston departed.
Opportunities remain with two games against the Bulldogs left this weekend followed by a midweek game against Clemson and a pair of three-game sets with Kentucky and No. 5 Tennessee.
Kingston wouldn’t divulge the exact details of his postgame meeting, but offered a slight nod to his message: “I reminded them who they can be. Bottom line. I reminded them who they can be and who they are when the right team shows up.”
Next USC baseball games
Who: No. 19 South Carolina (27-16) vs No. 4 Mississippi State (34-10)
Where: Founders Park in Columbia
When: 4 pm Saturday and 2 pm Sunday
Watch: Saturday streaming on SEC Network Plus; Sunday televised on SEC Network
This story was originally published May 7, 2021 at 10:07 PM.
