Texas A&M downs South Carolina, delivers Gamecocks their third SEC series loss

South Carolina baseball is at a critical point of the season.

The No. 22 Gamecocks dropped a 6-3 decision to No. 3 Texas A&M Saturday afternoon at Founders Park. It’s South Carolina’s fifth loss in six games and the third in a row — and the team’s third SEC series in four tries.

The offense has struggled to push across runs, and the starting pitching is starting to tax the bullpen. All that makes for an interesting final 25 games to the regular season.

While it’s not too late for South Carolina (21-10, 5-6 SEC) to turn things around, the Gamecocks have scored five runs in the current three-game slide.

“We have to trust the work we put in,” relief pitcher Ty Good said. “We don’t like losing, so we just need to get back on the winning side of things. We have a tough group of guys and I think we’re going to get back on track.”

Coach Mark Kingston says he’s yet to see the Gamecocks down. This is the third series where the Gamecocks have dropped the first two games, but they’ve yet to be swept.

“We’re playing (Sunday) to still be .500 in the league. You want better than that, but in this league .500 can get you to Omaha,” he said. “We have to come out and not have the weight of a series loss on our guys and continue to play the game the way we know we can.”

It’s the second straight SEC game where the Gamecocks’ starting pitcher didn’t make it out of the third inning. Friday night starter Eli Jones left after 2.2 innings and allowed seven runs. Tyler Pitzer made it to one out in the third Saturday. The freshman right-hander allowed four runs on four hits.

The Aggies (29-3, 8-3) jumped on top with three runs in the first inning. It’s the second game in a row Texas A&M used a big first inning to propel them to a win. Gavin Grahovac started things off by driving an 0-2 pitch off the batter’s eye in center field. Haydon Schott later added a two-run single in the first.

Good held Texas A&M at bay, working 5.2 innings and allowing one unearned run on two hits. The College of Charleston transfer struck out six and walked three in throwing 89 pitches. It’s the second game in a row the bullpen was good enough to give the offense a chance to mount a rally.

“The negative is we’ve struggled with Eli and Tyler, but the positive is our bullpen has been dominant two days in a row,” Kingston said.

Kingston was looking for a spark offensively and shuffled the lineup. Cole Messina missed the game and is in concussion protocol. He was replaced by Dalton Reeves behind the plate. Lee Ellis made his second start of the season at shortstop in place of an ineffective Will Tippett (.153 batting average). Tyler Causey has been platooning with Gavin Casas at first base, and the UNC transfer made his 21st start of the season.

Reeves collected two hits and Ellis had one, with each of them scoring in the third inning. Casas had his fifth home run when he pinch-hit for Causey in the eighth inning.

South Carolina came into the weekend 12th in the SEC in batting average (.270) and only trailed Missouri in the number of times they’ve struck out. They struck out 14 times on Saturday to give them 43 over the last three games, including 31 this weekend.

Series wraps up

Sunday: vs. Texas A&M, 1:30 pm (SEC Network Plus)