<\/p>\n
South Carolina pitcher Amp Phillips (13) pitches during the second game of South Carolina\u2019s doubleheader against Northern Kentucky in Columbia on Friday, February 13, 2026.<\/p>\n
Sam Wolfe<\/p>\n
Special To The State<\/p>\n
GAINESVILLE, FL.<\/p>\n
Twenty-four hours after being walked off by No. 23 Florida in a 1-0 loss to open SEC play, South Carolina baseball returned to Condron Ballpark on Saturday in a tricky situation.<\/p>\n
The night before, the Gamecocks had thrown their best starter (Josh Gunther) and their best relievers (Alex Valentin and Brandon Stone) to hold UF without a hit until the last out of the ninth inning. It wasn\u2019t enough as the Gamecocks were shut out and fell in extras Friday when the Gators scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n
Now, on Saturday, USC would have to tie the series with a depleted pitching staff and a sluggish offense.<\/p>\n
For the Gamecocks to even up the series on Saturday and force a Sunday tiebreaker, three things had to happen: 1. Starting pitcher Amp Phillips needed to go at least six innings to preserve what was left of USC\u2019s arms. 2. Florida needed to have another slow day at the plate itself. 3. The Gamecocks had to wake up on offense.<\/p>\n
Check, check \u2026 and no dice. USC was held to just three hits Saturday and fell to the Gators 3-0, setting up a possible sweep in the series finale Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s often you see two games in a row where neither team has an RBI hit,\u201d USC coach Paul Mainieri said. \u201cObviously we haven\u2019t had one, got shut out two days in a row. They have a high caliber pitching staff. Winds blowing in. It\u2019s not conducive to getting a lot of hits. \u2026 \u201cWe just got to keep battling and hopefully get some hits and runs tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
More stingy pitching<\/p>\n
The night after USC (12-8, 0-2 SEC) was shut out for 10 innings and Florida (17-3, 2-0 SEC) was no-hit until the final out of the ninth, Florida pitcher Aidan King and Phillips came out and gave some solid follow-up performances.<\/p>\n
Both pitchers didn\u2019t allow an earned run in their six-inning starts. King, who hasn\u2019t recorded an earned run all season, tossed a career-high nine strikeouts against the Gamecocks. But the key word here is earned runs. Florida was able to bring a runner home in the fourth inning when Patrick Evans dropped a fly ball that would\u2019ve been the third out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the plan every game, try to go as deep as you can,\u201d Phllips said. \u201cJust confidence in myself and believing in this team. I believe in this team. I think we\u2019re gonna figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evans made a similar error in USC\u2019s 8-3 loss to The Citadel on March 10.<\/p>\n
USC\u2019s lack of offense this weekend has overshadowed admirable efforts from the Gamecock pitching staff. The Gamecocks have four hits so far this weekend and still haven\u2019t scored a run. They recorded double-digit strikeouts in both games this series.<\/p>\n
Bullpen troubles<\/p>\n
Phillips was pulled ahead of the seventh inning after throwing 98 pitches. Left-handed pitcher Hudson Lee got the first nod for relief, and immediately gave up a walk. He was pulled for righty Zach Russell, who didn\u2019t fare much better.<\/p>\n
Russell walked another batter, hit UF catcher Karson Bowen in the head and gave up a pair of runs on two sacrifice fly outs, giving the Gators a 3-0 lead without any hits in the inning.<\/p>\n
No rally<\/p>\n
The game was well within reach in the final two innings, but the Gamecocks\u2019 bats never got going.<\/p>\n
Beau Hollins was the only USC player to record a hit Saturday, finishing 2 for 3 with a single and a double. USC struggled to get timed up with Florida\u2019s high-velocity bullpen, which features multiple pitchers who sit in the high 90s and touch 100 miles per hour with their fastballs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely not a lack of effort. We\u2019re preparing the right way, we work as hard as anybody. I think we just got to go out there and keep competing,\u201d Hollins said. \u201cWe can\u2019t look in the past. We got to keep working hard and getting on time for our pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollins\u2019 double in the eighth inning, USC\u2019s lone extra-base hit in the series, was for naught as Gators reliever Jackson Barberi forced the last two outs to strand Hollins at second. USC couldn\u2019t get any runs across in the ninth, making it 19 shutout innings to start the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just not hitting against really good pitching. So hopefully tomorrow will be better. We tried everything. Believe me, we\u2019re trying to get them going,\u201d Mainieri said. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s your hitters, sometimes it\u2019s their pitchers. Sometimes they make great plays. And you just got to keep believing in your kids, and let them keep going up there and competing hard, and hopefully they\u2019ll start to fall for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Carolina baseball scheduleSunday: at Florida, 1 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)Tuesday, March 17: vs. Charlotte, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)Friday, March 20: vs. Arkansas, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)Saturday, March 21: vs. Arkansas, 4 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)Sunday, March 22: vs. Arkansas, 1:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)<\/p>\n
This story was originally published March 14, 2026 at 9:51 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Carolina pitcher Amp Phillips (13) pitches during the second game of South Carolina\u2019s doubleheader against Northern Kentucky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,19668,30,29,5549,89545,89547,89546],"class_list":["post-192121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators-baseball","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-sec-baseball","tag-south-carolina-baseball","tag-south-carolina-vs-florida-baseball","tag-usc-gamecocks-baseball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}