Your GamecockCentral membership starts at just $1 \u2013 and we\u2019ll throw in a complimentary year of access to The Athletic.<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s the latest in a string of rough losses during Mainieri\u2019s short time in Columbia. South Carolina (6\u20133) has already dropped three games to mid-major opponents, something it didn\u2019t experience even last year, which was its worst season in program history.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also not hard to imagine the Gamecocks potentially overlooking this midweek matchup with a massive series against rival Clemson upcoming this weekend. But Mainieri didn\u2019t feel that was entirely the case \u2014 at least for him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly didn\u2019t (overlook Queens). I can\u2019t speak for all the players,\u201d Mainieri said. \u201c\u2026 I can\u2019t speak for the mental state of each player. I thought they were excited about playing and had a good, positive attitude and were ready to go. But things just didn\u2019t go our way early in the game. We dug ourselves a big hole and then had some bad luck as the game went on.\u201d<\/p>\n
That big hole came in the early innings, largely because of some rough outings from its pitching staff. Connor Chicoli lasted just two innings, allowing three runs on five hits over 44 pitches in his second midweek start of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was throwing strikes. He just probably threw too many strikes. He had guys down in the count and then gave up hits with 0-2 counts and things like that,\u201d Mainieri said. \u201cHe\u2019s got to learn to make them chase his pitch once he gets ahead in the count because he doesn\u2019t have overpowering stuff either.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things unraveled further in the third inning. Parker Marlatt surrendered a three-run homer to Grayson Childers and recorded only one out before head coach Paul Mainieri pulled him during the middle of an ensuing at-bat. The usually reliable right-hander now owns a 23.14 ERA through three appearances in what\u2019s been a jarring start to his season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s doing as well as he can,\u201d Mainieri said of Marlatt\u2019s struggles. \u201cI mean, they were hitting some pitches. He\u2019s not overpowering. He doesn\u2019t have great stuff. He throws strikes, and sometimes they hit it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patrick Dudley temporarily stopped the bleeding, tossing 2.2 strong innings in relief after Marlatt\u2019s exit. The freshman left-hander didn\u2019t allow a hit, striking out three and walking one.<\/p>\n
The Gamecocks also struggled to generate consistent offense against Queens right-hander Adrian Quezada, who entered Wednesday\u2019s start with a 10.80 ERA. Despite those early-season struggles, he delivered six innings, allowing three runs on eight hits while striking out four and walking two.<\/p>\n
South Carolina eventually got itself going after battling back against the Royals\u2019 bullpen in the late innings. Aaron Jamison blasted a solo home run in the seventh. Then, in the ninth, down to its last strike, Tyler Bak made it a one-run game with a two-run shot into right field. <\/p>\n
But when Craddock struck out, the four-run rally was over in the blink of an eye. It\u2019s a big blow, only nine games into the season. All Mainieri hopes for now is that this will be the weekend that things magically come together before getting any worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long season, and we\u2019ve just got to keep getting better,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously areas that we need to improve in and get more consistent in, and we\u2019re going to keep working at it. This weekend would be a good time to kind of put it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up next: South Carolina begins a three-game series with No. 15 Clemson on Friday at Founders Park. First pitch will be at 7 p.m. on SEC Network+. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the 30th pitch of the inning left Queens right-hander Jacob Young\u2019s hand, South Carolina\u2019s leading hitter, Will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-145914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}