Border battle vs. No. 13 UNC gets away from Gamecocks in Charlotte

Coming off a hectic weekend, South Carolina’s baseball team just seemed like it couldn’t muster enough juice on a cold Tuesday evening at Truist Field in uptown Charlotte.

It certainly didn’t help that they were facing No. 13 North Carolina and its top-10 pitching staff.

The Gamecocks’ somewhat thin bullpen faltered late and the Tar Heels blew things open in a 9-1 win. South Carolina (13-13) was down 2-1 before allowing a run in the sixth inning and six more in the seventh in Monte Lee’s third game at the helm.

North Carolina (21-4-1) pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts, fourth-most in a game this season. Lee said despite that, he wasn’t too bothered by the approach at the plate, pointing to a few key moments and crediting UNC’s control and tenacity.

“We needed to find a way to come up with a big hit and get some momentum in our dugout earlier in the ball game,” Lee said. “I was proud of the kids through six — we were really competitive. We were right there. And, you know, just unfortunately for us, we struggled to throw the ball over the plate and they ran away with it.”

Bullpen blues

South Carolina‘s night on the mound seemed split into three distinct parts: a starter bowing out quickly, some yeoman’s work from Logan Prisco, and finally the rest of the bullpen just coming apart.

Starter Connor Chicoli lasted only four outs, with a walk, a hit batter and a home run allowed. Then Prisco went to work, going 4.1 innings and allowing five base runners with five strikeouts.

“Felt pretty good,” said Prisco, who threw 42 strikes on 51 pitches. “Just tried to give the team a chance to compete, win the ballgame.”

After he let a runner reach third with two outs, South Carolina turned to Cullen Horowicz, whose control has been an issue.

He threw a wild pitch on an overthrown breaking ball that scored the run to make it 3-1. The next inning, four Gamecocks issued four walks, hit a batter, threw two wild pitches to score runs and saw runners advance on a passed ball and two steals.

“The free 90 just kicked us in the rear end the fourth time through the order,” Lee said, referencing the miscues. “The first three times through the order, we pitched pretty good.

“That’s what got us.”

Missing bodies

The Gamecocks haven’t been able to go into many games this season with a complete roster. Illnesses have hampered the team, and injuries make an already difficult situation even more challenging.

“We’re down to like 13 position players,” Lee said. “We had a few guys not come (to Charlotte) because they’re sick. We started out the season with 17 position players, had 13 on the trip today. Between some injuries and guys getting sick, it’s been a rough spring, and it’s just been cycling through the team.”

Part of that has meant catcher Talmadge LeCroy getting more work behind the plate than the staff would like, with backup Gavin Braland not available (the only other available catcher, Jake Randolph, was at DH Tuesday, and couldn’t go into the field without creating some lineup complications).

LeCroy struggled with a passed ball, as well as handling a couple of potentially catchable wild pitches.

The bullpen was also down a few arms, which left fewer options as the game got away from South Carolina down the stretch.

Getting things in order

Tuesday marked the fourth day since Lee was tasked with replacing Paul Mainieri, who stepped down after a a 40-40 mark in 80 games. It also marked the third game Lee coached in those four days.

“We haven’t had an opportunity to practice yet,” Lee said, noting he was excited to go over some of the things he wants to focus on while running the team.

He did use Monday’s off day to clarify some things in terms of his coaching staff, including moving Stuart Lake to the role of director of program development and moving Chris Gordon into an on-field role.

Lee praised Lake as a “great baseball guy” and said Gordon helped balance coaching responsibilities and could pair with pitching coach Terry Rooney.

“One of the things that a lot of people don’t ever really talk about, when you look at a baseball roster, is half the roster is pitchers,” Lee said, noting one coach usually works with that half and three coaches with position players. “You know, it’s kind of nice to have two guys on the pitching staff side, coaching-wise, working with half your roster.”

South Carolina baseball schedule: Next games

• Friday: at Georgia, 6 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
• Saturday: at Georgia, 2 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
• Sunday: at Georgia, 1 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
• March 31: vs. Wofford, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)