Kentucky on winning end over South Carolina in another wild night of SEC baseball

South Carolina will head into the Sunday finale with No. 4 Kentucky still looking for another SEC signature series victory.

The No. 24 Gamecocks wasted a five-run first inning lead Saturday in falling to the Wildcats 15-13 in a wild affair at Founders Park.

It wasn’t decided until Gavin Casas flew out to deep centerfield with the bases loaded and the tying run on second base in the ninth inning.

“It can be frustrating, but I told the team I was just as proud of them tonight as I was (Friday) night,” South Carolina coach Mark Kingston said. “It’s really easy to say how proud you are after a win, but they played just as hard tonight. We fell a few feet short because Gavin took a great at-bat there that easily could have been a walk-off.”

The Gamecocks (28-14, 10-10 SEC) opened Saturday’s game like the momentum from the walk-off home run from Friday would carry over. South Carolina sent 12 to the plate in the first inning with Kennedy Jones, Casas, Dalton Reeves and Austin Brinling each driving in at least one run. All six hits in the inning were singles, with the two from Jones and Reeves being two-run jobs that built a 6-1 lead after a 34-minute first inning.

But Kentucky (33-8, 16-4) was unfazed.

The Wildcats got one back in the second before adding five runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings to take a 12-6 lead. Kentucky hit four solo home runs in the two innings.

Two of the home runs came off USC starter Eli Jones. USC reliever Matthew Becker allowed two runs in the fifth inning. Jones allowed seven runs, four earned, in 3.2 innings. He was sharp until the wheels completely fell off in the fourth. Becker worked an inning, allowing five runs on four hits. He also allowed UK’s Emilien Pitre to steal home in the fourth inning.

“Eli and Matthew weren’t their normal selves tonight, for whatever reason,” Kingston said. “I thought the guys that came in after them did a pretty solid job, but it was just too much to overcome.”

The Gamecocks wouldn’t go away quietly. Cole Messina got his first hit of the weekend with a three-run home run in the sixth inning to close the gap to 12-9. South Carolina would add two more in the eighth when Parker Noland scored on an error at first on a ball hit by Blake Jackson. Jones added a sac fly to make it 12-11 Kentucky.

Jackson got into scoring position and Casas walked to put the go-ahead runner on base, but Talmadge LeCroy popped up to short right to end the threat.

The Wildcats added three runs in the ninth off Parker Marlatt to set the stage for the bottom half of the inning when the Gamecocks added two, but it ended with the deep drive by Casas.

This is South Carolina’s seventh SEC series of the season. They’ve won two and lost four of their conference series, with a home sweep over then-No. 3 Vanderbilt and a road series win over Florida. They’ll wrap up SEC play with Missouri, Georgia and Tennessee.

▪ Next: Kentucky at South Carolina, Sunday, 3 p.m. (SEC Network)