South Carolina baseball drops midweek to Winthrop, suffers worst record in Founders Park history

Entering Tuesday evening, not much remained on the table to play for with South Carolina baseball. The Gamecocks already clinched their most losses in program history over the weekend. Their only path to the NCAA Tournament lies in the SEC Tournament next week.

At best, pride was on the line for the 22-30 Gamecocks. South Carolina lost eight straight after returning to .500 at 22-22 on April 25. A Tuesday midweek win could prevent a ninth straight loss and avoid its first .500-or-worse season at Founders Park in its 17-year history.

The Gamecocks failed to avoid that fate, falling 5-2 to the Winthrop Eagles at home on Tuesday night. The loss marks an extension to South Carolina’s worst losing streak since 1961 (15) and its first loss to Winthrop since 2015.

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South Carolina’s lack of energy became apparent early after two straight three-up three-down innings put the Gamecocks in an early hole as four batters sat down on strikes to Winthrop starter Shane Keup.

The hitting struggles confused interim head coach Monte Lee.

“I mean, look, show up here at about 1 o’clock every day for a 6:30 game. From 1 o’clock until game time, I want you to find a college baseball program that hits more than we do,” Lee said. ” … We try our best to prepare our guys. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Maybe, we hit too much.”

Lee said he’d rather have his team be overprepared to hit than underprepared. However, the blame on the hitting struggles falls on him as the head coach regardless. The Gamecocks finished Tuesday with five hits in 32 at-bats.

Tuesday evening marked Keup’s first start of the season. The Columbia, S.C., native previously came on in relief eight times throughout the season for the Eagles.

The Winthrop runs sparked something in South Carolina as a lead-off single from Will Craddock put one on for the Gamecocks. Additionally, the third inning marked the longest Keup had thrown in a game all season to that point.

The lack of experience came to bite him as a walk put one more on for South Carolina. One wild pitch later, both landed in scoring position. However, the Gamecocks failed to capitalize on the redshirt sophomore’s tired arm. South Carolina plated only one in the third as the Eagles responded with a two-run shot to left field.

Shortly before the home run, the Gamecocks got a pitcher working in the bullpen to relieve starter Connor Chicoli. However, the move came one batter too late as the Eagles extended their lead to 4-1.

Facing another embarrassment in a season full of midweek defeats, South Carolina needed answers. Luckily for the Gamecocks, a second lead-off single sparked another rally. Shortly after, a double off the wall brought the crowd at Founders Park into the game for the first time.

Five pitches later, South Carolina had the bases loaded with no outs as Keup exited the game for Winthrop. 11 pitches after that, the inning was over as two strikeouts and a groundout stranded all three.

To make matters worse for the Gamecocks, after walking a batter, reliever Logan Prisco exited with a trainer after just six pitches. Lee did not have an immediate update on Prisco’s status post-game.

However, the fifth inning became Winthrop’s turn to strand the bases loaded with no outs.

Luke Yuhasz thanked his pitcher with a lead-off home run to left-center to pull a run back for South Carolina. Though the Gamecocks loaded the bases again, this time with two outs, all three runners got stranded for the third straight side.

South Carolina failed to find its offensive spark again on the night. Then, fielding errors loaded up in the ninth as a bobbled potential double play put two on for Winthrop, then a ball dropped between three Gamecocks, loading the bases. Two strikeouts ended the Eagles’ scoring threat; however, South Carolina failed to respond offensively.

With the loss, South Carolina finishes its season 11-8 against mid-major opponents, starting with an opening weekend 2-1 series split against Northern Kentucky.

“This program is built on toughness. It’s built on competitiveness. And this just isn’t it. We got to be better,” Lee said. “We got to find a way to compete, show more fire, more passion. It’s not acceptable here.”

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