Similar to the series finale against UNC Greensboro last weekend, the No. 5 South Carolina baseball team struggled igniting its offense and fell short of completing a series sweep of Wright State Sunday.
The Gamecocks were defeated 5-1 as Raiders starting pitcher Danny Sexton gave up zero earned runs and tossed four strikeouts over 7.0 innings.
“They played a better game today than we did,” Holbrook said. “(Sexton) really, really pitched well. We knew he was really good and a great competitor, threw the ball well and kept us off balance all game.”
USC starting pitcher Adam Hill lost his second game of the season, giving up two earned runs, three hits and two walks over 5.0 innings pitched.
The Gamecocks opened up scoring in the second inning. Second baseman LT Tolbert singled to right field and advanced to second on a fielding error by Adrian Marquez. Third baseman Jonah Bride followed with a single up the middle to score Tolbert and give USC an early 1-0 lead.
In the third inning, Wright State shortstop Kevin Whatley drew a walk and second baseman Matt Morrow blasted a two-run homer to right field for the Raiders' first lead of the weekend.
The Wright State offense came out firing again in the fifth inning as third baseman Seth Gray hit a leadoff single to left field and Marquez followed with a single to center. Whatley hit a ground ball to shortstop and made it safely to first on a throwing error by shortstop Madison Stokes. With the bases loaded, Morrow hit a groundball to Hill, who fielded the ball and hesitated before throwing to first. Morrow was ruled safe at first, extending Wright State’s lead to 3-1.
“I saw the ball, so I went to go get it. It was just kind of a tough bang-bang play. I started to go for the guy at first, instead throwing to the guy at home, because I thought we had a better shot at that," Hill said.
“It was just kind of an in-the-moment thing. I saw the ball and I went for where I thought the sure out was.”
After the scoring play, Holbrook sprinted out of the USC dugout to argue the call at first, and was ejected by first-base umpire John Puma.
Right-handed pitcher Reed Scott was called in to relieve Hill in the sixth. He kept Wright State at bay for two innings, but gave up two runs in the eighth on three singles from Gray, Morrow and Weatherford. Scott gave up five hits, two runs, two earned runs and three strikeouts over 2.2 innings pitched.
Both Wright State and USC garnered eight hits, but Holbrook said the Raiders’ competitive at bats proved the be the difference.
“I think their hitters battled a little better than our hitters. They produced some more run scoring opportunities than our guys did,” Holbrook. “I think their bats were a little more competitive than ours and that was a bit disappointing for me.”
Next up
South Carolina (5-3) will host Appalachian State (4-3) at 4 p.m. Tuesday. The Mountaineers lost three of four in their opening series against UNC Wilmington, but are coming off of a three-game sweep of Gardner-Webb.