Time to Panic?
I don't have much to say about this series, so this won't be a long blog. It was a pretty anticlimactic series only playing 2 games due to weather. The weather played a bigger part in this series than just cancelling game 3; it caused game 1 to go into a weather delay which doesn't sound too impactful, but it caused our best pitcher and South Carolina's worst pitcher to hit the showers early after just 3 innings. Heading into the delay we were down 3-1 which is not an insurmountable deficit by any means. South Carolina's starter came into the game with a 5.17 ERA and 1.34 WHIP so it was only a matter of time before we starting hitting him. Alas we entered a rain delay which forced both starters out of the game making us put in Sam Dutton for some reason and South Carolina to put in James Hicks who has a sub 3.00 ERA and sub 1.00 WHIP. I'm not even sure why we put in Sam Dutton in a 2 run game, but we did and he didn't even do that bad. It was the next pitcher Micah Bucknam who blew it up, allowing 6 earned runs over just a single inning. The next guy wasn't much better. Will Hellmers allowed 4 earned over 3 full innings. What's sad is that we scored 4 runs after the delay meaning if we just hold them to 2 runs the rest of the game, we win. Which could have happened if Paul Skenes pitched a normal 6 or 7 innings and then put in someone like Garrett Edwards. It also didn't help that the umpire must have graduated from the University of South Carolina as he was atrocious behind the plate especially for us. Tre Morgan stuck out twice on 2 balls. He either graduated from there or the school for the blind.
The next day was not looking good as we just kept digging ourselves into holes. We fell 4-0, but were able to make it 4-3. That wouldn't last long as it would become 7-3 the very next inning. Entering the 8th inning, we're still down 7-3 and at this point you may as well turn off your tv because we aren't showing signs of life. Until Gavin Dugas decides he's had enough of this and promptly hits a game tying GRAND SLAM. I can't say that Gavin Dugas is the best hitter on the team, that title goes to Dylan Crews obviously, but one this is for certain- he is the most clutch hitter on the team. He has hit so many homeruns to either tie the game or give us the lead. Thankfully our pitching was able to keep it a tie game entering the 9th where Cade Beloso hits a single up the middle to score Crews giving us a 1 run lead. Gavin Guidry comes back out for the 9th inning to close out the game and he does just that. The Tigers tie up the series and make us 3-0-1 in SEC series, so no it is not time to panic. #1 LSU will play #12 Kentucky at home starting on Thursday, which should be our last difficult series as our last five SEC series are all against unranked teams.
