‘We just strike out too much.’ How the decline of USC offense led to early NCAA exit

Even through the inevitable, gut-wrenching tears that come at season’s end, Andrew Eyster couldn’t help but grin as he thought back to the 2021 South Carolina baseball team’s high-water moments.

There was a stretch when the USC offense barreled over everybody, when Eyster and the Gamecocks walked off against rival Clemson not once but twice, when the Gamecocks willed themselves back into a 14-inning contest against Florida and went on to sweep the series.

“(We) just found something in us to just light a spark that allowed us to come back,” Eyster said Sunday, a brief look of joy flickering through the pain. “I don’t know how to explain what it was exactly, but it was incredible how that would happen.”

Whatever the source of that magic, by the end of season, the Gamecocks could no longer summon it.

The once-mighty USC offense stalled down the stretch as the Gamecocks (34-23, 16-14 SEC) dropped four of their last five conference series. Playing in their first home NCAA regional since 2016 this weekend, the Gamecocks scored just seven runs across three games. After a Game 1 win against Virginia on Friday, the Gamecocks lost the next two games by one run each, eliminated by the Cavaliers in Sunday’s 3-2 loss.

In both games, the Gamecocks had moments where one swing could’ve put them over the top — moments that USC capitalized on early in the season. In Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Old Dominion, the Gamecocks left 10 men on base, batting 0 for 13 with runners on. On Sunday, they left six on base and didn’t crack the run column until the sixth inning.

One of USC’s early-season heroes, Eyster went hitless in his first 11 at-bats of the regional before breaking through with a pair of hits in the elimination game against Virginia.

“I feel like I’m the guy that everyone wants to be up there in that position because they’ve seen me do it before, and to not be able to do it is tough,” Eyster said. “It is frustrating, but at the end of the day it’s the law of averages, I guess. And it’s how baseball is. As much as I wish I could come through every time, it’s just not realistic.”

Righting the team’s offensive struggles had been a hot topic heading into the regional, with head coach Mark Kingston saying the team spent the week after its early SEC tournament exit working on situational hitting and taking live batting practice.

But the fruits of that labor never materialized.

The USC lineup boasts strong, physical hitters like the NCAA’s leading home run hitter, Wes Clarke, and center fielder Brady Allen. But when the Gamecocks weren’t hitting home runs, they struggled to consistently generate contact. Strikeouts were the team’s bugaboo, especially late in the season, as opposing pitchers would take advantage of the team’s hefty swings by throwing a heavy diet of breaking balls and off-speed pitches off the plate.

Just in the three games USC played this weekend, the Gamecocks struck out 35 times as a team, drawing six walks.

“We just strike out too much,” Kingston said. “In this day and age, it’s going on at all levels of the game. Obviously in the big leagues it’s an epidemic. And it’s filtering down into college and high school baseball. Pitching has gotten to a point where it’s more challenging than it’s ever been, so hitters need to continue to adjust along with the pitchers.

“Guys need to find ways to just put the ball in play more — that’s the bottom line. We hit for enough power. But you’ve got to be able to put the ball in play at a much more consistent level than we did this year. And that’s something that has to get better.”

Of course, hitting doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and the pitchers USC faced throughout the weekend deserve credit for their execution, as well. The Gamecocks faced a variety of styles and arm angles. Old Dominion right-hander Ryne Moore kept the Gamecocks off balance with his low arm slot sinker and sweeping breaking ball. On Sunday, UVa starter Matt Wyatt touched up to 97 mph on the stadium radar gun, blowing the ball by USC’s batters.

Part of the narrative throughout the season was that because the Gamecocks played the third strongest schedule in the country, they’d be ready to hit the college game’s top arms come postseason time. That narrative never came to fruition. The magic never returned.

Instead, the Gamecocks walked off the Founders Park field Sunday with tears in their eyes and dark, ominous clouds gathering overhead.

“It’s super emotional, obviously,” Eyster said. “The end of every season is like that. But knowing that a lot of guys probably aren’t gonna be here next year, that’s emotional too. There’s a lot of guys that probably might be a while until we see them again.

“That’s always tough, especially with how we’ve been around each other so long, pretty much nonstop for these last four or five months. That’s definitely the hardest part.”