Mark Kingston rolled the dice and it backfired in the worst way possible.
Going into the sixth inning, Garrett Gainey was on a roll. He made his way through five shutout frames but his pitch count was rising and Tennessee was soon to have the lineup come up for a third time. He gave up a one-out homer to Christian Moore to give Tennessee some life.
The signs were there that the end was near.
After getting the second out, Gainey proceeded to give up back-to-back singles. Sitting at 88 pitches, he had never gone this long before. But rather than pull him, Kingston left him in. And he paid the price.
On his 93rd pitch of the night, Gainey served up a go-ahead three-run homer to Hunter Ensley to end what was a strong outing. But instead, it gave Tennessee the lead for the rest of the game, as the No. 1 Vols picked up a 4-3 win over the No. 24 Gamecocks on Friday.
South Carolina (33-20, 13-16 SEC) will officially finish under .500 in SEC play for the first time since 2022. It has now lost five straight games.
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Gainey did all he could. He made it through 5.2 innings as he racked up five strikeouts without a walk. But because he was left in too long, he ended up giving up four runs on seven hits and took the loss.
While the move to leave him in was questionable to say the least, the offense didn’t do much to help. Despite scoring three runs on two errors in the second, the Gamecocks couldn’t do more against Vols starter Drew Beam. And after a two-out single in the fifth, they wouldn’t get another hit.
Beam pitched six innings of three-run ball with only one earned run charged to his final line. He struck out four and walked two.
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Later in the seventh, South Carolina found itself in another tight jam. After Jake McCoy put two on with one out, Matt Williams came out to the mound to make a pitching change. Normally in a one-run game, Chris Veach would be the one to come in. But instead, it was Parker Marlatt coming in with Moore due up.
After walking Moore, Marlatt served up a grand slam to Blake Burke to bust it open and give the Vols an 8-3 lead. And that would be all she wrote.
Up next: South Carolina will try to salvage the series finale and avoid the sweep against Tennessee on Saturday. First pitch is at 1 p.m. on SEC Network Plus. The Gamecocks have yet to name a starting pitcher.
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