South Carolina baseball struggles in series-opening loss to Alabama. What we saw
South Carolina baseball saw its losing streak continue Friday.
Monte Lee and the Gamecocks dropped their sixth straight game, losing 8-3 to No. 19 Alabama at home in Founders Park.
“Give Alabama a lot of credit. Played a great baseball game,” Lee said. “They jumped on us early, put together the big inning in the second. Look, they pitched, they hit, played good defensively, they played a complete game, and they deserve to win.”
With the loss, South Carolina is now 22-28 (7-18 SEC). The Gamecocks have a shot to salvage the series vs the Crimson Tide with games on Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (1:30 p.m.).
Crimson Tide get it going early
Alabama got on the scoreboard first after a pair of clutch at-bats in the second inning.
South Carolina’s starting pitcher, Amp Phillips, got the Crimson Tide to two outs quickly but saw things unravel after.
Alabama first baseman Luke Vaughn broke the seal on the scoreboard with a solo home run over the wall in left. Phillips walked the next two batters to give Alabama two on with two out.
Justin Lebron, Alabama’s shortstop, proceeded to hit a three-run home run over the wall in left to give the Crimson Tide a 4-0 lead.
“When teams come out and they square the ball up like that in the beginning of the game, it just gives you confidence,” Lee said. “… I think the first inning kind of set up the second inning. They were smoking balls. They were hitting balls on the barrel pretty hard. Just felt like they had a lot of confidence early in the game and which led to a big inning.”
Phillips recovers on the mound
Phillips was still able to put together a relatively solid performance for the Gamecocks.
He allowed three hits and four runs in the first two innings. But he recovered and kept Alabama off the board for the rest of his outing.
Phillips didn’t allow a hit or base runner in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Lee said he felt Phillips did a better job of executing and locating his pitches on the mound after the second inning.
“I felt like once Amp got through that, the adrenaline kind of went down, he started pitching,” Lee said. “I thought he made a lot of really good pitches from the third inning on and did a nice job. Sometimes you just try too hard.”
The Crimson Tide didn’t get to Phillips until the top of the sixth. Alabama left fielder Eric Hines started the frame off with a triple and the next batter reached on a fielder’s choice. Lee opted to take Phillips out of the game after that, tabbing Parker Marlatt to come in and close out the inning.
Phillips ended his outing with 96 total pitches in 5.1 innings. The junior allowed four hits, four runs, walked three and struck out three.
Phillips’ outing wasn’t perfect, but he kept South Carolina within striking distance while he was on the mound. Unfortunately, the Gamecocks’ offense didn’t repay him.
Not much productivity at the plate for USC
South Carolina struggled to find consistency on offense in the loss.
The Gamecocks didn’t record their first hit until the fourth inning thanks to a double from Talmadge LeCroy. Before the two-base knock from the veteran catcher, South Carolina had only two base runners and struck out four times.
South Carolina was able to score in the fourth after KJ Scobey brought LeCroy home with an RBI single. That cut Alabama’s lead to 4-1.
Meanwhile, Alabama extended its lead to 5-1 in the seventh inning with an RBI ground out. They made it an 8-1 game in the eighth thanks to a two-run homer from Vaughn (his second of the game) and a wild pitch. Alabama recorded nine hits in the game.
South Carolina didn’t record another hit until the eighth inning. The Gamecocks got runners on thanks to a single from Will Craddock and a double from Ethan Lizama. Both scored on wild pitches, cutting Alabama’s lead to 8-3 entering the ninth inning.
The Gamecocks were 4 for 31 from the plate and struck out 13 times.
This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 8:16 PM with the headline "South Carolina baseball struggles in series-opening loss to Alabama. What we saw."
