South Carolina baseball loses its first game of the season. What we saw
For the first time in 2026, South Carolina baseball lost a game.
After sweeping its Opening Day doubleheader against Northern Kentucky on Friday, the Gamecocks (2-1) could not rally Saturday and lost 3-2. It was the Gamecocks’ first loss to a mid-major opponent since Paul Mainieri took over last season.
“They just seemed lethargic today,” Mainieri said. “I thought we’d come out and really explode today. I knew the guys were tired (because) yesterday was a long day, 18 innings. We had a lot of guys whose legs were cramping.”
Yet, in the bottom of the ninth inning, it seemed like the Gamecocks were going to pull off another dramatic victory. South Carolina, which entered the frame down two, drew three walks in the inning and gave itself a heck of a situation: down one with two outs and shortstop KJ Scobey coming to the plate.
Scobey, of course, ended Friday night’s game with a walk-off home run. On Saturday, though, he struck out swinging and the Gamecocks fell for the first time this season.
“We almost had another miraculous rally,” Maineri said. “But we obviously didn’t play our best baseball today.”
There are some offensive concerns
This weekend didn’t provide a swell of confidence that the Gamecocks will have an offensive turnaround in 2026.
In three games against Northern Kentucky (which went 31-25 last year), the Gamecocks managed just 24 hits, hitting just .163 (7-43) with runners on base and .133 (4-30) with runners in scoring position.
Heck, in the final three innings Saturday, South Carolina stranded six runners and struck out five times.
“We just didn’t swing the bats good at all today,” Mainieri said. “I just thought we’d be hitting better than we are. … I just felt like everything was in slow motion today. We were just walking around. Our bat speed wasn’t good. We were swinging at bad pitches.”
But this wasn’t just about the Gamecocks coming up short too often in clutch situations. South Carolina wasn’t able to start fast in any of its three games, scoring just one combined run before the fifth inning.
Stone shines in debut
One of just six pitchers who returned to South Carolina from the 2025 roster, Brandon Stone was expected to open the season in the bullpen. But, because of injuries to Jake McCoy and Alex Philpot, the 6-foot-6 righty got the first Sunday start in the season.
And he gave the Gamecocks as much as they could’ve hoped for.
In four innings of work (60 pitches), Stone allowed one earned run and three hits while striking out five and allowing no walks. And Stone’s lone earned run came because of a Gamecocks error, when a relay throw got under the glove of cutoff man Scobey, rolled to the wall and allowed a runner to score (a later hit would’ve eventually scored the runner).
“We pitched well enough to win today,” Mainieri said. “We just couldn’t muster enough offense.”
Regardless, for a South Carolina starting rotation that was severely in question, Saturday was another good outing after Riley Goodman (3.2 IP, 3 H, 0 ER) and Amp Phillips (3.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER) did enough for the Gamecocks to sweep their Opening Day doubleheader.
South Carolina baseball vs. Northern Kentucky schedule, results
- Friday, Feb. 13 (game 1): USC 5, NKU 2
- Friday, Feb. 13 (game 2): USC 6, NKU 5
- Saturday, Feb. 14: NKU 3, USC 2
This story was originally published February 14, 2026 at 5:36 PM.
