The South Carolina baseball team played two complete games to get the series win over Charleston Southern on Friday and Saturday, but slowly fizzled out on Sunday to miss getting the series sweep.
Trailing 4-1 in the top of the sixth on Sunday, the Gamecocks entered a 73-minute rain delay hoping to regroup and get the key hitting they found all weekend. After the delay, the Gamecocks had bases loaded in the eighth and got one run back via a walk, but left them loaded and the two runs were all the team could muster.
Head coach Mark Kingston was disappointed with the performance he saw from his hitters on Sunday, especially after the offensive he saw all weekend.
"I just think, with the way we've been swinging the bats, we've been averaging nine runs a game, so you would think that you go into a Sunday and you gave up four, your chances of winning should be very good," Kingston said. "So I didn't expect us to only have four hits today. There's no question about it."
Although the Gamecocks scored 23 runs over the weekend, the biggest performance was Adam Hill on Friday night. The junior had what he said was the best pitching performance of his career, tossing seven no-hit innings in the win. Hill did not give up a walk, making it the first time since 2016 where he did not walk a batter, and also struck out 14. The 14 strikeouts are a new career-high, and it set a new Founders Park record. He was at 100 pitches through seven, which is why Kingston decided to pull Hill, despite still having the no-hitter intact.
South Carolina hit seven home runs over the course of the weekend, bringing its total to 16 on the season. The Gamecocks also had three triples and two doubles over the weekend, having 31 extra base hits total early this season.
Despite having an overall strong weekend, Kingston was more focused on the Sunday loss. He said he was more disappointed with how they played Sunday and couldn't continue the production they had started the rest of the series.
"This is the most fresh in my mind right now," Kingston said. "Hard for me to look back at yesterday or Friday. Disappointed with our production today, so maybe tomorrow, maybe later tonight, I'll take an overview, but right now, just disappointed in the way we played today."
The Gamecocks are back at Founders Park on Tuesday at 4 p.m. to host Furman. With it being their ninth game in almost two weeks, the Gamecocks have a good chance to rebound, but Kingston said this busy schedule is something they should get used to.
"This is a pretty typical schedule for anybody in the country right now. You're playing weekends, early in the season you have some double mid-week games, so very typical," he said.