No. 1 Texas baseball outlasts South Carolina in series opener

COLUMBIA – No one can say South Carolina didn't have its chances.

In the series opener against the No. 1-ranked team in college baseball, Texas, the Gamecocks (7-6) continued their stretch of coming up just short in crunch-time situations.

Thanks in large part to Ivan Melendez's propensity to hit balls to the stratosphere, the Longhorns (13-2) fended off USC, 9-5, on a windy Saturday afternoon at Founders Park to take game one of the three-game set.

Texas' three-hole hitter smashed two separate, towering two-run home runs off two different Gamecock pitchers, the second of which he flipped his bat toward USC relief pitcher Aidan Hunter.

His four RBIs were the difference in the game.

How South Carolina fell to Longhorns

South Carolina took the lead early with an strong offense that's been missing for several games.

Leadoff Brandt Belk opened with a double before Braylen Wimmer brought him in. Wimmer later scored on a wild pitch from Texas starter Pete Hansen, who came into the weekend nearly unhittable. South Carolina had six hits off Hansen by the third.

"He had given up one earned run all year," South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston said. "And we got five off of him today. He's really good but I thought we did about as good as you can ask against a guy that caliber."

But after that first frame, where the Gamecocks plated three runs of four hits, they managed seven hits over the next eight innings. USC hit Hansen more than other other team in his four starts so far in 2022 – the lefty hadn't given up more than five hits in a game

Despite not sustaining the level of offense, USC still had chances to cut into or even reclaim the lead later in the game. Star senior rightfielder Andrew Eyster dug in with two runners on in the seventh, but Horns reliever Travis Sthele caught him looking to end the threats and strand the runners.

Previous coverage: 5 takeaways from Clemson baseball's 'historic' sweep of South Carolina

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USC were also caught stealing twice that ended two separate frames and cut any shot of having runners in scoring position off.

"We played well," South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston said. "We hit the ball well. We played well, just not well enough yet."

What's being asked of South Carolina pitchers

Kingston deviated from Friday night starter Will Sanders and elected to start Noah Hall against the Longhorn Saturday after the weather pushed the game back a day.

The junior, earning his second start on the season, went 4.2 innings, allowing seven runs on 10 hits with six strikeouts. The caveat there is Texas pelted Hall for three runs in the fifth, deeper in the game than Hall would've normally pitched.

There's where that "yet" comes from Kingston's statement above. Injuries to Julian Bosnic, James Hicks and Jack Mahoney not available to pitch, it's put a strain on the staff and has forced Kingston and pitching coach Parker White to get creative in how they handle in-game decisions.

"We have to use our resources and fill innings right now. (Hall) gave us everything he had. The issue we're running into right now is we're having to ask guys to throw one more inning than they should, that they're capable of throwing," Kingston said.

"(Reliever) Aidan Hunter throws up two 0's and we tried to sneak one more inning out of him and it caught up to him. At some point, we won't have to do that and that's when we're really going to be able to take off in my opinion."

South Carolina baseball losing streak reaches five games

The Gamecocks have now lost five straight games. It's been a rough stretch, getting swept rival Clemson before dropping a midweek game to a then two-win Xavier club.

It marks the second time in as many seasons that USC has had a losing streak of at least five games. South Carolina dropped six straight early around this time last season, which including a sweep out in Austin.

Cory Diaz covers the South Carolina Gamecocks for The Greenville News as part of the USA Today Network. Follow his work for all things Gamecocks on Twitter: @CoryDiaz_TGN

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Texas outlasts South Carolina in college baseball series opener