By Sinderella
The South Carolina Gamecocks dropped their SEC opening series to Ole Miss two games to one. The offensive struggles of hitting with players on base continued for South Carolina as they, again, left too many on base and did not drive enough of them in.
Not only that, but they struck out more than they have versus any other team this season. The Gamecocks couldn't locate the ball and it was brutal to watch, but they did end up bouncing back on Sunday, when the bats found the ball and South Carolina cruised to an easy victory. If you're going to win one, then make sure it's Sunday.
If we are being honest with ourselves, Friday night was a bad showcase for college baseball. Both teams were not playing well. It was kind of like game one of Iowa vs Ole Miss all over again, but it was the starting pitching that was poor, not the bullpens. Too many free bases to a team that eats up free bases like South Carolina.
Ole Miss came into the series with the third most walks in the country behind South Carolina and Texas A&M. They are now only two walks behind South Carolina in the country instead of eight behind, when they started the series. Outside of a really bad eighth inning, the pitching was solid on Saturday, and on Sunday, it was great as they shut down Ole Miss to win 6-2.
South Carolina has to figure out their offense if they want any success going forward, and it has to be found out now. Perhaps it's the approach (same exact one as last year) that needs to change, switching out players, or maybe it's just a different order in the lineup. Whatever it is has to change as soon as possible.
Ole Miss is a better team than they were last year, but they are still projected to be a bottom-of-the-league team. If South Carolina wants to continue the Omaha hope, then they can't play as poorly as they did versus Ole Miss this weekend. Looking ahead, South Carolina has USC Upstate on a neutral site game, and they gear up for Vanderbilt, who swept Auburn and leads the East, at home. This will be a huge test to see if South Carolina can bounce back from the SEC series loss.
(All pictures courtesy of @GamecockBll and @OleMissBSB on X)
Σχόλια