South Carolina drops home finale to Winthrop. Gamecocks’ season hits new low
South Carolina baseball’s final game of the year at home in Founders Park ended in unceremonious fashion.
Monte Lee and the Gamecocks lost to Winthrop 5-2 on Tuesday. With the loss, South Carolina is now 22-31 (7-20 SEC) on the year.
South Carolina will close out the 2026 season with a three-game series at Vanderbilt. The Gamecocks will head to Nashville on a nine-game losing streak, the longest skid since USC lost 15 in a row in 1961.
“Give credit to Winthrop. They were a better team tonight. Pitched better, hit better than we did,” Lee said. “...Quite honestly, not good enough. This program is built on toughness. It’s built on competitiveness. And this just, isn’t it. These guys, we got to be better. We got to find a way to compete. Show more fire, more passion. It’s not acceptable here.”
Struggles with mid-majors and at home in general
The loss gives South Carolina an 18-18 record in home games in 2026. That marks the worst home record since the Gamecocks started playing in Founders Park in 2009. The previous low at Founders Park was an 18-15 record in 2019.
The last time South Carolina finished with a .500 record in home games was 1963. The last time South Carolina recorded a losing record at home was in 1970.
Mid-major programs beating power conference teams in any sport, especially baseball, isn’t exactly an enigma. That said, South Carolina has generally struggled to put away mid-major teams in 2026.
With Tuesday’s loss, South Carolina will end the 2026 season with an 14-8 record against mid-major teams. Notable results this season include two losses to The Citadel as well as losses to College of Charleston and Queens.
The win is Winthrop’s first over South Carolina since 2015.
Winthrop finds enough offense
The Eagles didn’t exactly look like world beaters at the plate on Tuesday, but their offense did plenty to secure the win.
Winthrop got on the scoreboard first in the third inning. A walk and a single in back-to-back at bats helped set up a sac fly from Corey Wouters. The RBI gave Winthrop a 1-0 lead. Alan Bernhardt extended Winthrop’s lead to 2-0 after an RBI single.
Winthrop made it a 4-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning after a two-run home run from Ethan Wilson. Winthrop added another run in the eighth to make it 5-2.
The Eagles were 9-of-34 from the plate.
Gamecocks come up empty in big opportunities
South Carolina’s offense wasn’t stone-cold on Tuesday, the Gamecocks recorded five hits, but it is certainly fair to say it struggled in big moments.
The Gamecocks left nine batters on base in the game and were just 1-for-10 with runners on and 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
“We had some opportunities, pretty much through the third through the sixth inning, with some runners on base, and just couldn’t come up with a big hit,” Lee said. “...We didn’t swing the bat well enough.”
The biggest examples came in the fourth and fifth innings.
In the fourth inning South Carolina was down 4-1 and loaded the bases up with no outs but had nothing to show for it. Two Gamecocks struck out and another grounded out to end the inning.
For a moment in the fifth it looked like USC had found some life after a leadoff homer from Luke Yuhasz made it a 4-2 game. Even after the next two batters flew out the Gamecocks were still able to load the bases. But USC left with only one run on the board after a strikeout ended the inning.
South Carolina baseball’s last three games
- Thursday, May 14 at Vanderbilt (7 p.m. on SEC Network+)
- Friday, May 15 at Vanderbilt (7 p.m. on SEC Network+)
- Saturday, May 16 at Vanderbilt (2 p.m. on SEC Network+)
This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 9:37 PM.
