Mizzou baseball went into Saturday afternoon, looking to solve its latest offensive slump. The Tigers couldn’t quite find the key that opened that offensive lock, losing 6-4 in a game that, to put it lightly, came few and far between for the Tigers.
South-Carolina
Offensive slumber continues for Missouri in sweep against South Carolina
“Unfortunately, not a very competitive weekend,” Mizzou coach Kerrick Jackson said. “As I talked about with these guys all year, we just have to figure out how we can get a point of being consistent. We have these ups and downs, and the really drastic highs and lows. It’s our job as a coaching staff to figure out how we can get them consistent, keep them in the same mind place, keep them motivated to go out and get after it every day.”
The Gamecocks, with this win, clinched a three-game series sweep over Missouri, and Kerrick Jackson’s group walks away with a missed opportunity to climb out of the bottom of the Southeastern Conference.
South Carolina built the lead in pieces, striking for a pair of runs in the top of the second on a pair of singles and a two-run double from Patrick Evans.
A third hit of the afternoon for KJ Scobey came via the long ball, and Dawson Harman, after his previous solo shot in the fourth, launched his second home run of the day with a two-out blast in the sixth, stretching the road side’s advantage to 5-2.
Hannah Henderson/Rock M Nation
Will Craddock knocked up the homer counter to four, putting the offensive cherry on top of the Tigers’ pitching. His solo shot came in the top of the ninth, making the offensive production a slow drip for the Gamecocks in their final game at Taylor. The Tigers could not do the same.
I use the analogy of trying to find the right key for the lock,” Jackson said. “I don’t know where we go from game to game, and how we can look really good and look like we can beat anybody in the country, and then look the way that we looked this weekend. That’s what we have to figure out: what these guys need, how to get them motivated, how to keep them going and pushing, and understanding what it means to win and be competitive in the SEC.”
OFFENSIVE TROUBLES CONTINUE
Looking to avoid the sweep, the Tigers needed an offensive rebound after accumulating one run across the plate the last 18 innings against the Gamecocks pitching
It was more of the same for the Missouri offense throughout the afternoon. Similar to a volatile temper, there were sudden, unpredictable outbursts, which occurred in the fourth and ninth innings, respectively. For too long, the at-bats were filled with small contact, balls not leaving the infield, and strikeouts, of which the Tigers accumulated nine in the series finale.
For the opening three innings of play, the Tigers had a total of one ball hit out of the infield, a shallow pop fly to center field by Keegan Knutson. Gamecocks starter Alex Valentin had a no-hitter up until the former Gamecock, Jase Woita, connected on a two-run shot that nearly hugged the right-field foul pole.
Hannah Henderson/Rock M Nation
Woita was the lone Tiger to reach base multiple times, three in total, which included two walks after his homer pulled MU closer, making it 3-2 in the bottom half of the third inning. The big fly from Woita was, more importantly, the lone hit for Missouri through eight innings of play.
Then came the ninth. Down 6-2 heading into the final chance for Missouri to pick up a winner, Woita led off with a walk. Two outs later, Keegan Knutson’s ground ball knocked off the glove of Dawson Harman at third, putting Knutson and Woita on second and third, respectively.
A single from Jamal George, who was subbed in at second base in the eighth inning, scored Woita and advanced Knutson to third. The pass the bat mentality continued, as another player who had recently been brought off the bench into the ballgame by Jackson, Donovan Jordan, doubled to left center. 6-4 Gamecocks, Blaize Ward coming up to the plate with a chance to turn an afternoon of frustration around.
The comeback ultimately wasn’t to be, as Wards’ flyout to right center field ended the last gasp at a chance to steal a road sweep from the visiting Gamecocks.
“That was one thing we just didn’t do today, which was we didn’t have a lot of quality at bats,” Jackson said. Why then and not earlier? Maybe I should have gotten my degree in psychology, and it would have been a little bit easier for me, but just being able to try and figure that out.”
The Tigers head to Springfield for a second game of the season against its in-state foe, the Missouri State Bears. The two will clash on a 6:30 p.m CT midweek matchup on Tuesday evening.
Hannah Henderson/Rock M Nation
Then, Missouri will travel to Norman to clash against No. 16-ranked Oklahoma in a three-game series from Friday to Sunday. After this weekend’s inconsistency, Kerrick Jackson had this to say about the road ahead with a second consecutive SEC road series against a top-25 opponent on the horizon.
“You’re going into Oklahoma a competitive team, but they’ve also had their ups and downs,” Jackson said. They started off ranked high this year and they’ve kind of gone through it. They’re starting to kind of pick up with their pitching. We’re a credible club, maybe our guys don’t believe how good we are, and so that’s part of it. Its about how do we instill that belief system in them to go out and think you can compete with anybody in the country. Just by competing, you put yourself in a position to walk out with the victory.”
South-Carolina
Former South Carolina wing, Lexington native, lands at new program via transfer portal
Former Gamecock basketball wing Cam Scott has found a new home. Following a second offseason in which the Lexington, South Carolina native entered the transfer portal, the Temple Owls have announced that Scott has signed with the program.
A former five-star prospect (though he was a four-star by the time he signed), Scott’s South Carolina basketball career did not go the way many envisioned when he flipped from the Texas Longhorns in the class of 2024.
During his high school days, Scott was a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in the Palmetto State. He also set numerous records at Lexington High School. He signed with Texas before eventually winding up with the Gamecocks.
Scott then spent two years in garnet and black. As a freshman, he struggled mightily, averaging 2.5 points while shooting 27.8% from the field and 17.8% from 3-point range. After entering and withdrawing from the transfer portal, he returned to USC for a second season. However, Scott never played again, choosing to redshirt the 2025-2026 campaign.
Because of the redshirt, Scott will have three years left to play at Temple.
The Insiders Forum: Discuss South Carolina basketball!
Scott joins six former teammates in finding new homes via the transfer portal. All seven of South Carolina’s transfers this cycle have dropped down to mid-major programs.
Forward EJ Walker (Western Kentucky), forward Jordan Butler (Furman), forward Elijah Strong (St. Louis), post player Christ Essandoko (Bowling Green), guard Eli Ellis (Charlotte), and wing Abu Yarmah (Longwood) have all revealed commitments this transfer cycle.
Following another tough season in Columbia, South Carolina will have a very different roster next year. With five graduates and seven transfer portal defections (plus multiple staff changes), the Gamecocks nearly experienced complete turnover.
So far, six players have pledged their services to Lamont Paris’ team out of the transfer portal. Kory Mincy (George Mason), Camden Heide (Texas), Aleksas Bieliauskas (Wisconsin), Shane Blakeney (Drexel), Jakub Necas (Duquesne), and Davion Hannah (Alabama) have committed as of the time of this writing.
BATON ROUGE, LA (USC SID) – The University of South Carolina baseball team fell to LSU, 7-0, Sunday afternoon (May 3) at Alex Box Stadium.
Omar Serna gave LSU a 2-0 lead in the third with a home run to left. Cade Arrambide’s sacrifice fly put the Tigers up 3-0 in the fifth. Tanner Reaves’ RBI single gave LSU a 4-0 lead but Ethan Lizama’s throw to the plate was called interference by Derek Curiel, holding the Tigers to one run.
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LSU scored a pair of runs in the sixth and added on in the seventh to make it 7-0.
KJ Scobey had two of Carolina’s five hits in the contest. Alex Valentin took the loss, allowing three runs on four hits in four innings with six strikeouts.
POSTGAME NOTES
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Josh Gregoire came in to pitch in his hometown of Baton Rouge. He pitched 1.1 innings and allowed a hit with no runs.
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Carolina had three errors on the day.
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Carolina played in Baton Rouge for the first time since 2011.
UP NEXT
Carolina will take the midweek off for final exams and return to action on Friday afternoon (May 8) against Alabama. The game will start at 5:30 p.m. and will be televised on SEC Network.
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LSU baseball has been searching for a conference win for three weekends now, but after rain swept into Baton Rouge Friday, LSU would have to wait until Saturday for its chance to claim that win against South Carolina.
The issue is that meant the Tigers would play a doubleheader, something this team has yet to face. And the last thing this LSU team needs is an irregularity in its schedule.
LSU didn’t let it affect them, earning a 6-1 win in Game 1 and a 7-3 win in Game 2.
So now that the Tigers secured the series, it goes for the sweep on Sunday. But more importantly, LSU can take these three things away as it finishes the regular season and tries to earn a spot in the postseason.
The Fewer Pitchers, The Better
LSU’s starting rotation has been plagued by injuries, with Casan Evans and Cooper Moore missing multiple weekends this season.
And LSU has felt that.
With those losses, nearly every game has become a bullpen game, leading to LSU averaging five relievers per game across the last three weekend series losses. And the bullpen has been inconsistent, with nearly everyone having multiple rough outings this season.
This weekend, LSU got everything it could ask for from its starting pitchers.
With William Schmidt moving up to the starter role in Game 1, he went six innings before being replaced by Grant Fontenot, who went the rest of the way for the Tigers.
Game 2 was the same story. LSU had Marcos Paz carry the team through five innings of one-run baseball, and he was replaced by Deven Sheerin, who tossed four innings, allowing two runs in the top of the ninth inning.
Freshmen Keep Raking
Freshman William Patrick was just one of two players with multiple hits in Game 1, continuing a hot streak of games from him.
Another freshman who stepped up on Saturday was Mason Braun. He had one hit and three walks in Game 1 before blasting a two-run home run to advance LSU’s lead in Game 2. He’s been a major contributor all season as a freshman, earning starts as early as opening day.
Don’t overlook the freshman in the pitching staff either, with Paz earning a weekend start in Game 2. His outing was layered with confidence, allowing just one hit, one earned run and three walks while striking out eight.
Offense Finds Its Footing
For a while it felt like LSU would never find an offensive identity, with head coach Jay Johnson just asking his team to go back to basics and focus on just finding the baseball with the bat and not trying to optomize their swings for launch angle and find hits to the backside of the field.
Against Mississippi State last weekend, LSU scored eight runs in every game in one of the most consistent offensive weekends since February.
That carried over into this weekend, scoring six and seven in each of the games on Saturday.
Steven Milam, Derek Curiel and Cade Arrambide all had multiple RBI in Game 1 versus the Gamecocks, but they’ve been stars at the plate all season.
Arrambide launched a late home run for LSU, adding to its strong lead.
Seth Dardar got his time back in the lineup in Game 2 after dealing with some injuries the last few weeks, and he took advantage of his at-bats, going 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.
LSU has found its offensive identity that Johnson was begging for all season, allowing small ball, sacrifice plays and two-out hitting to score instead of relying on home runs.
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