South Carolina continued to miss the presence of All-Amerian reliever Tyler Johnson in a 5-3 defeat to Vanderbilt, with the Commodores scoring three runs off the Gamecocks' bullpen in a 13-inning loss.
South Carolina mustered just three hits after the third inning.
"If you pitched today or played today or not – I mean even for the fans – for anyone who supports this team, it's obviously a gut-wrenching loss," South Carolina starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt said.
The Gamecocks were on the wrong side of a few peculiar plays in the early innings.
With one out in the second inning Jacob Olson took off for second as LT Tolbert earned a walk at the plate. Vanderbilt catcher Jason Delay rifled a throw down to second base anyway, and Olson momentarily thought he had been called out. As it turned out, he hadn't been, at least not initially.
Much to the dismay of the Founders faithful, second base umpire Thomas Walkoviak issued bad news to Olson after he was tagged again. Olson was under the impression he had previously been called out.
Play resumed after South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook made not one but two trips from the dugout. The Gamecocks would fail to score in the inning, but had better fortunes in the third.
Vanderbilt spotted the Gamecocks three runners to open the inning with a throwing error, a missed tag and a hit batter. Third baseman Jonah Bride helped the Gamecocks capitalize with a single through the left side to score shortstop Madison Stokes.
South Carolina would extend their lead to 3-0 by the end of the inning. Freshman designated hitter Carlos Cortes also contributed an RBI-single.
South Carolina right-hander Clarke Schmidt held Vanderbilt hitless in its first trip through the order, but left fielder Stephen Scott doubled with one out in the fourth. First baseman Julian Infante plated Scott on a bloop single. The Commodores cut the deficit to 3-2 when catcher Hunter Taylor failed to corral a sweeping slider from Schmidt, allowing Infante to score on the wild pitch.
Schmidt recovered from his blip in the fourth and completed seven innings, yielding just one walk while striking out 11 batters. Schmidt established favorable counts by spotting his fastball early on during at-bats and generated misses by expanding the zone with a tilting slider.
Since missing time with an oblique injury, Schmidt has recorded 26 strikeouts compared to just four walks over his last three starts.
"I'm really in a comfortable place right now," Schmidt said. "Everything is working good for me, I just gotta keep that up and try to go out there and go deep into games."
With Vanderbilt down to their final out in the top of the ninth with a runner on second, coach Tim Corbin elected to pinch hit with junior Reed Hayes. Hayes also doubles as a reliever for the Commodores and picked up the save in Vanderbilt's 7-6 win on Thursday. Hayes responded with an RBI-single to left field, sending the Gamecocks to their fourth extra-innings game of the season.
Vanderbilt broke the scoring drought in the top of the 13th inning when Infante hit his second home run of the series off of Reed Scott.
South Carolina failed to reach base in the bottom of the 13th, just as it had done since the start of the ninth inning. The defeat ensured a second consecutive series loss for the Gamecocks.
"We are way to talented to be winning and losing one-run games," Schmidt said. "We gotta figure something out in the late innings."
The Gamecocks will look to salvage the series at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. Sophomore Adam Hill will take the mound for South Carolina.