No. 3 South Carolina baseball can’t keep up with Kentucky in Game 1 loss
For a brief flicker in Friday night’s game at Kentucky, South Carolina ace Will Sanders looked like he recaptured his vintage form.
Midway through his start, the embattled junior right-hander struck out five Wildcats in a row, leaning on a wipeout slider and exuding confidence with each successive swing and miss.
But Kentucky slugger Hunter Gilliam spoiled the outing in the fifth with a two-run home run — Sanders’ Kryptonite — and the hobbled USC lineup didn’t have the muscle to swing back into the game. Kentucky (31-13, 12-10 SEC) defeated the No. 3 Gamecocks 7-3, marking the second weekend in a row USC (36-9, 14-7) has dropped the first game of a series.
Coming off a rough start against Auburn in which he allowed eight runs, Sanders ran into tough luck early against the Wildcats. The first run he allowed came on a two-out wild pitch, and the second came on a rare inside-the-park home run. Unable to see a routine fly ball in the sun, USC center fielder Dylan Brewer let a drive from Kentucky’s James McCoy drop behind him, and McCoy raced home for a fluke home run in the second inning.
USC first baseman Gavin Casas cut the deficit in half with a solo homer in the fourth, but the Wildcats punched right back with Gilliam’s two-run shot. The same held true in the seventh inning. After USC opened the frame with two runs against Kentucky reliever Ryan Hagenow, the Wildcats tagged USC right-hander Eli Jones for three runs in the bottom half, taking back control of the contest.
With three starters still missing from action due to injury, the USC lineup lacks some of the punch that had it putting up nearly 10 runs a game through the first three months of the season. But USC’s starting pitchers have done the Gamecocks no favors of late, either, with starters allowing at least four earned runs in each of USC’s last four SEC games.
The Gamecocks are in danger of dropping their second straight SEC series and third series of the season. Kentucky, meanwhile, snapped a four-game losing streak that included a midweek loss to Louisville and a sweep at Vanderbilt last weekend.
Next four USC baseball games
Saturday: at Kentucky, 2 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
Sunday: at Kentucky, 2 p.m. (SEC Network)
Tuesday: vs. North Florida, 4 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
Friday: at Arkansas, 7:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
This story was originally published May 5, 2023 at 9:08 PM.
