No. 5 South Carolina outscored Kansas State 5-2 after the first inning Thursday, but an early deficit proved to be insurmountable for the Gamecocks, who fell to 3-2 on the season after a 6-5 midweek loss.
After pitching a total of 12 2/3 innings out of the pen over his first two seasons at South Carolina, junior left-hander John Parke labored in his first career start, failing to make it out of the first inning before being relieved by Graham Lawson. Eight of the southpaw's first nine pitches were balls, and the Wildcats employed a patient approach to draw four walks in the opening frame, leading to a 4-0 lead for Kansas State.
KSU starter Colton Kalmus also struggled with his fastball command early on, spotting the Gamecocks two free passes in addition to hitting leadoff hitter Danny Blair. The Gamecocks were unable to capitalize on their early opportunity, leaving the bases loaded. All told, the first inning required a combined 72 pitches and spanned 39 minutes.
"Well, I mean it is February," said South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook. "There's certainly a whole ton of baseball to be played, and you know, you just hate to lose games at home, especially when you kind of help the opponent a little bit get off to a great start. That was disappointing."
"John's a talented kid. He's a smart kid. He's going to bounce back," reliever Reed Scott said. "He's going to be a big part ... of this team this year and we're all just as confident in him. I mean, he has the stuff, he has the ability, he has the mentality."
Junior Alex Destino cut into KSU's lead in the third when he pulled a middle-in fastball to right field for a two-run home run. Destino leads the Gamecocks with two home runs and eight runs batted in through five games.
The Wildcats would respond in the top of the fourth with a two-run home run of their own, courtesy of first baseman Jake Scudder. Scudder also had an RBI-double in KSU's four-run first inning, finishing the game with three hits, two runs and three runs batted in.
South Carolina loaded the bases to start the bottom of the fourth against KSU reliever Caleb Littlejim, but with no outs in the inning, the umpire crew converged on the mound to inspect the freshman's glove. After an extended meeting period, Littlejim was ejected, seemingly for having an unproved substance on his glove.
After Littlejim's departure, junior shortstop Madison Stokes scored when Blair grounded into a double-play, but catcher Chris Cullen struck out in the next at bat.
South Carolina would tack on two more runs in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI-double from Stokes and an RBI-single from second baseman LT Tolbert. Stokes would finish with three hits on the day after collecting just one hit in South Carolina's first four games.
Scott logged 5 1/3 innings out of the pen. He was charged for one earned run after inheriting a runner from Lawson in the fourth and then subsequently allowing Scudder's home run. The senior was otherwise effective, yielding just three hits and one walk. Scott will likely not be available until Sunday according to Holbrook.
The Gamecocks once again left three runners on in the bottom of the seventh, and stranded 11 runners in total, falling 6-5 despite outhitting their opponent.
Next up
South Carolina will face No. 25 Wright State this weekend, with the series opener set for Friday at 7 p.m. Last season's Horizon League champions claimed a road series win over Clemson last weekend.