Whoever lost on Saturday was going to be in one of the toughest spots imaginable. In this case, it happened to be South Carolina coming out with the short end of the stick.
After a 6-4 loss to NC State in the winner’s bracket of the Raleigh Regional, the Gamecocks will now be playing to keep their season alive. They’ll need to win three games in two days to advance in the NCAA Tournament.
It’s undoubtedly going to be a steep mountain for the team to climb. But for now, let’s focus on Saturday’s loss.
Here are my takes from the game.
Didn’t play bad, NC State was just better
If you told me before Saturday South Carolina hit into two routine double plays (Kennedy Jones’ line out double play in the sixth inning was just a great play so I’m not counting that towards my point), made one unlucky error and hit three home runs, I would’ve thought a win was in order.
But despite playing what I thought was a pretty good game, it just wasn’t enough. While the Gamecocks were much cleaner and didn’t make as many self-inflicted mistakes, NC State played a little better.
The Wolfpack also hit three homers in the game, all of which came off Garrett Gainey through the first five innings. They also didn’t make a single error and played strong defense. And for the most part, their pitching stepped up and did a good enough job to earn the win.
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So it’s not like there was an obvious reason or mistake for why South Carolina lost. I will say, Matthew Becker didn’t pitch great and walked in what would be the go-ahead run. But that was always going to be a tough spot to come into after Connor McCreery got into a jam. Sometimes you have success, sometimes you don’t.
At the end of the day, you just have to tip your cap to NC State. The Wolfpack are a good team all around. Move on and try to replicate what you did on Saturday, fundamentally speaking, if you’re South Carolina.
Give credit to the team for stepping up without Petry
Up until 20 minutes before game time, it was a mystery whether Ethan Petry would play or not for the Gamecocks on Saturday. But when he emerged in his batting practice attire, it was pretty clear he wouldn’t be starting in the game.
Ultimately, he’d suit up in full uniform but would watch on from the dugout the whole time. After the game, Mark Kingston said Petry has a “hairline fracture right above his pinky” and will reevaluate to see if he could possibly play on Sunday.
Without his presence in the lineup, there was a lot of shifting guys around. Cole Messina played first base, Dalton Reeves caught and Dylan Brewer played left field.
Brewer is the name to talk about here. In his first start since April 26, the fifth-year outfielder went off on Saturday. He finished 2-for-4 with a pair of homers and three RBI. For not knowing if he’d be in the starting lineup until right before first pitch, I’d say job well done.
And look, while South Carolina didn’t get the win, it was a commendable effort. Truthfully, the defense looked a lot sharper with the different alignment. Messina made some nice plays at first, even Talmadge LeCroy did well at third and hit a double in the seventh.
If Petry is good to go for Sunday, I doubt he would be 100 percent. Clearly he wouldn’t with his condition. But I did like the lineup Kingston ran out on Saturday with everything kind of being decided on such short notice.
Backs up against the wall, how will this team respond?
Think about this: South Carolina is one more loss away from having its season come to a swift end this weekend.
As previously mentioned, the Gamecocks face a challenging battle of trying to win two games on Sunday and one on Monday just to advance to the Super Regionals. All of this because of one loss. It’s unfortunate but that’s just the reality of the situation.
In terms of what’s next, the team will play James Madison again in an elimination game at noon on ESPN+. The winner will move on to play NC State in the night cap on Sunday in the regional final. But one win against the Wolfpack won’t be enough. The winner will need to also win on Monday to move on.
Keeping the focus on the next game, South Carolina has its work cut out. But the good news is that JMU had to use six different pitchers in its first two games, two of which threw in both games. So while the Gamecocks’ pitching isn’t in the greatest spot either, I still think they have the upper hand with enough quality arms to come through.
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The rest of the weekend is a different story, though. I think it’s going to be tough for this team to piece together 27 strong innings of baseball in the next 48 hours if they get that far. NC State will be in good shape. And who knows, maybe the Gamecocks will only play one game on Sunday and be finished.
But there’s a lot at stake, and I think South Carolina is going to give everything it has to come out on top. If there’s one thing you can’t question about this year’s team, it has to be their heart. It’s super cliché but they continue to fight and don’t know how to give up, at least from my point of view.
There’s a good line from the 2004 Red Sox team that came back from a 3-0 deficit against the Yankees to win that year’s ALCS (and it pains me as a Yankees fan to think about that). But Kevin Millar famously said, “Don’t let us win today” before game four of that series. As the story goes, the Red Sox won the next two games on walk-offs then took game six and seven in the Bronx to reach the World Series.
So my point is, it’s baseball at the end of the day. Anything can happen. It’s already a good sign that South Carolina played pretty well on Saturday. Put it all together in the first game on Sunday and go from there.
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