South Carolina battles but unable to overcome early deficit in loss at Vanderbilt

As the runs kept coming and Vanderbilt’s first-inning lead kept growing larger, Monte Lee couldn’t believe it. All the interim head coach could mutter to himself in the dugout was “here we go again.” In the blink of an eye, South Carolina found itself in an immediate six-run hole on Friday night. Everything that could’ve gone wrong did go wrong. It would’ve been easy at that point for the team to wave the white flag and coast by the rest of the way, maybe even get back to the team hotel earlier than expected. But with the season drawing closer to its inevitable end, the one thing Lee wants more than anything is for the players to “give your best.” And from the second inning on, that’s exactly what he got. The Gamecocks looked much sharper the rest of the evening but fell short in a 9-5 loss to the Commodores. “I’ll be honest, I was proud of the way we competed,” Lee told GamecockCentral. “… The energy was good, the guys were in the ballgame. All in all, you take away the first inning, which was a really tough one, I thought we played a pretty good baseball game in a lot of areas.” In that opening inning, Alex Valentin got off to a disastrous start as Vanderbilt sent its entire starting lineup to the plate. One by one, seemingly every hitter reached base as the Commodores went 3-for-3 on their challenges in that frame alone. He had thrown 33 pitches and looked bound for a short outing. The left-hander, however, managed to get through five innings and gave up one more run. He left after allowing four earned runs (seven total) on 11 hits while striking out four and walking two. He threw a season-high 105 pitches and struck out the final two batters he faced to at least go out on a high note. “He really battled, he really competed,” Lee said. “For him to be able to get him a little bit deeper in the game, where we didn’t have to burn through what bullpen we had left, quite honestly, it was a good sign. I was proud to see him just kind of settle down and just compete and pitch. The first inning again was rough. We didn’t help him. There were some plays that we needed to make behind him that we just didn’t make, but ultimately, I thought he settled in and gave us a chance, and that’s all we could ask from him at that point.” Given South Carolina’s (22-33, 7-22 SEC) season-long struggles as the worst offense in the SEC, it was fair to assume it would be a long rest of the night. But the Gamecocks battled, and to Lee’s surprise, the players were as locked in as they could be and slowly started to get themselves back into the game. “Quite honestly, I think I’ve said about everything I could say,” Lee said when asked if he needed to say anything when South Carolina trailed 7-0. “The one thing I’ll say about the guys is I heard them talking. Honestly, it helped me relax a little bit, you know, because obviously you’re frustrated as a coach that things just aren’t going your way, and I just heard the guys, they were in the game, and they were talking to each other, and they were cheering on their teammates, and they kind of took ownership of the game.”Get the On3 Top 10 Newsletter in your inbox every morningBy clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein. The Gamecocks broke out for three runs during a two-out rally in the fourth. KJ Scobey made up for an earlier error from the first inning when he cleared the bases with a two-run double into the gap. Will Craddock kept the rally going with an RBI single into left field. Then in the seventh, they tacked on two more runs on an RBI double from Luke Yuhasz and an RBI single by Tyler Bak to pull within two runs. But that would be as close as they got to getting back in it. “I just thought we did a better job of having discipline at-bats,” Lee said about the difference for the offense. “… I thought we battled better with two strikes, and all in all, I just thought it was a much better offensive day for us, one through nine.” Zach Russell allowed just one hit over two scoreless innings after Valentin’s night ended. But in the eighth, he ran into trouble in the eighth after he loaded the bases with no outs. Josh Gregoire came in to try to limit the damage as best he could, but Vanderbilt scored two crucial runs to create the separation it needed to hold on. South Carolina has now lost 11 straight games, with its last win coming back on April 25. With Missouri losing to Texas, the Gamecocks are locked in to be the 15-seed in the SEC Tournament starting next Tuesday and will need to win five games in six days to get to the postseason. Up next: South Carolina will look to avoid being swept for a third consecutive weekend in the series finale on Saturday. First pitch will be at 2 p.m. on SEC Network+. Riley Goodman (0-3, 9.16 ERA) will get the start on the mound. The Insiders Forum: Discuss South Carolina baseball!