Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, women's basketball prepares for the Sweet 16, and the baseball team struggles again in a midweek game. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay. Welcome to episode 308 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope you all had a great week out there. If you couldn't tell, allergies and everything a lot more cleared up compared to last time where I was struggling. Felt like I was talking underwater. Just absolute attacked by pollen. But what are you going to do? Hope you all had a great week. Happy opening day to those who celebrate. MLB baseball fans out there always feels great. And that's like the official sign that spring is here. I don't care what the calendar says. Opening day, that's my official start of spring. And then you timing that. This is a great couple of days here. If you're a sports fan, professional and college, you got baseball back. And then you're rolling that right in to both men's and women's sweet 16 elite eight. Just muah. Chef's kiss of a few days there. And what a weekend. Great weekend to do nothing. I was just saying it's nice outside with the weather spring wise, but also you got the pollen, so avoid it. But nice time to just stay in or maybe, you know, back patio with. With a tv, cold drink in your hand. Just all time, few days there. But yeah, I hope y'all are ready to have a nice weekend here. Gonna jump into all the action here. Not a ton to go over, but nonetheless gonna bring y'all up to speed and of course, end things on the highest of notes. Talking about our women's basketball team. But a quick weekend review here for y'all. All the action was on Tuesday. Tuesday was a great day to be a Gamecock. Well, we'll get into that. But men's golf, they tied for first in the Hoodie at Bulls Bay intercollegiate. So shout out to the men's golf team finishing for first in that one. And the big note on Tuesday was that softball beat Clemson 6 nothing. Hell freaking. Yeah. How about that? You know, we've talked a lot about this softball team this year. Little bit of a tricky start to SEC play was rolling before that. And now you have a test against your rival. And don't forget that Coach Chastain, in her first year here, she is an alum. She knows what this rivalry means better than most playing in it. And you go out there and you absolutely dominate. Shutting Them out. Pitching was on fire. Great hitting. You win six nothing against your rival. Just add it to the list. Add it to the list. So fun. Yeah, that team is. That team is fun. Our softball team. I really hope they can get some good W's under their belts against SEC competition. But nonetheless, this has been a fun season, and it's just one that's caught the eye of so many more Gamecock fans. Like, I would do these weeks in reviews, and, yeah, we would talk about softball, you know, like, mention if they had a nice weekend, a good sweep when they made a run in the conference tournament. Talked about that. But it just feels like more and more people are talking about it, and it's a fun team. And then, you know, when we talk about what's going on on the other side of things on the. On the men's team. And again, then, second, you almost rather would watch the softball team. If we're going to watch a game on a diamond, softball is kind of the more exciting ticket, if we're being completely honest here. But, yeah, really, really big win for that team. Shout out to the softball team. Beating Clemson 6 nothing.
[00:04:47] That rocks. That absolutely rocks. But, yeah, so also on Tuesday, on the other side of men's golf and softball, here, the baseball team was in action. The Yardcocks took on North Carolina, a border war here in Charlotte at Truish Field, where the Knights play. I was able to attend this one. That was really cool. Like, it could be a good story right there, full stop. I hadn't seen our men's, men's team. I hadn't seen our baseball team play in years. Just not living in the area. It was always a funky time to travel for me, but I wanted to, and I missed that atmosphere of watching Gamecock baseball. And so to have the opportunity in my new backyard in Charlotte to go to this game, it was really cool. I mean, you could tell that there was energy in that crowd. Like, yes, you had it set up where you had. Almost all the UNC fans were on one side, and almost all the South Carolina fans were on the other side. So they had a little bit of that going on. But just from the Gamecock fans alone, like, we want this. You know, like, I've talked about this at length, but, you know, the pride we take in this program. And, yes, maybe the results haven't been up to the higher standard that we have for this program lately, but you can feel that passion, that excitement, and the desire from our fans to win this, you know, to win this game, to Be good at baseball. You can tell it's there, you know, and I love our fan base for every sport. And you could just really, really tell that it was. It was a fun atmosphere. And things got started quickly and positively for the Gamecocks. Like, nice, good adjectives here. Carolina with back to back home runs from Nathan hall and Ethan Petrie to start this game. And you're sitting there in the first inning like, holy smokes. Like, let's go. Are we about to, you know, get this thing going? I was saying before the game like, this could be a pivotal game early in this season for South Carolina to maybe catch a W and then get a little momentum this weekend, if you can, and then ride that wave. But, yeah, things. Things went down from there for a little bit. UNC would score a few runs in the middle innings, particularly three in the sixth. And those middle innings, like innings three to six, really, four to six in particular, it just felt like a slog, like they took forever. I mean, no pitcher on South Carolina could get in a groove. Like, we were giving up hits, giving up a ton of walks. It felt like nobody could find the strike zone. Nobody could get in a groove. You had some poor defensive play sprinkled in there, like you get a ground ball to get out of the inning, and you bobbled it. You know, you botched it.
[00:07:52] So it was just a tough going there. Things were looking bleak. They were feeling bleak. It was getting colder.
[00:08:00] And really quickly, you're sitting there and thinking, well, shoot, like, what happened to that good start? And then the. The Tar Heels were teeing off on us and just not. Did not feel good. But the Gamecocks bounced back, scored four in the sixth to get it within one and then one in the seventh to tie things up. And all of a sudden, it's a brand new ball game. But then right away, the Tar Heels answered with a fricking five spot in the eighth to ultimately win 13 to eight.
[00:08:34] And that was all she wrote.
[00:08:37] So player highlights from this. Ethan Petri, 2 to 5, 2 for 5, 1 ribby, Henry Kazmar, 2 for 2 with 2 RBI. And, you know, I've been thinking a lot about the team here this baseball season, and it's tough. You know, you started off things pretty well, and things did not go well against Clemson, but you still kind of felt like, all right, we could have a team that could hang with some SEC folks here. Those opening couple of series have not gone well.
[00:09:13] That blown game in that rubber game that Sunday, however many days ago, is really rearing its head now. Like it's still early in the conference play. But that. That's a black eye right now on it.
[00:09:27] And it's tough. Like, I almost felt like this game summed it up a little bit where you had some flashes early, struggled, yet you fought ultimately to lose. And I feel like we've seen that pattern a couple times this season.
[00:09:47] There are definitely some things that are concerning me. And y'all know me. Y'all know I'm. I'm an optimist. I was beating the drum during basketball season even. Like, it's early. It's early. And I am a big believer in baseball is a long, long season. Baseball is a funky sport. You can turn things around. Teams that no one thought could get hot do get hot. So there is still plenty of ball left in this season.
[00:10:15] But there are concerns that we have seen. And then I saw in person where the pitching seemingly doesn't have a reliable option to just get those big outs.
[00:10:30] You know, you thought you might have had it in a couple of guys. It just was not coming easy against unc. And we've had a couple of instances where late in the game you need a couple of outs and it just doesn't come easy.
[00:10:43] So that's a concern.
[00:10:45] And starting pitching has been a concern.
[00:10:48] Just top to bottom pitching staff, way too many walks. We've seen a couple of costly errors. I saw that against UNC too.
[00:10:59] A couple of mental mistakes. Right. So there are things that are concerning. Like, I do think there's talent on this team in the lineup. There's guys who you can rely on. Couple of guys need to step up. Sure, but. But you can piece together a good game. I mean, you put up eight against unc.
[00:11:21] You just can't get it done on the other side of things. And you gave up 13. And a lot of that was because you had guys on the base pass that you were just easy free bases.
[00:11:32] So am I concerned? And maybe it is early for me to be saying this, but I am a little concerned.
[00:11:42] So we gotta. We gotta see how this turns out. These next couple of series in the SEC are going to tell us a lot because it could be getting late early in gamecock country for this team. Because up next, you do have a weekend series at home against Tennessee. Tennessee takes a lot of pride in that program. They've been really good these last several years here. So big, big test for Paul Minary and company here. My crow to the series. Limit the free bases.
[00:12:17] Limit it. You know, you can't say no walks because that's darn near impossible, but just entirely too much lately.
[00:12:24] Weekend rotation here. Friday, Jake McCoy. Saturday, Jarvis Evans moves into that weekend rotation, and then Sunday is tba. Also, a weird, frustrating update from the team here. Dylan Eskew, pitcher injured his oblique while recovering from his concussion. His timeline to come back as TBD sounds like it's a while.
[00:12:50] So to catch all up here, it's just the one of the more bizarre things to try and wrap your head around here. I mentioned it kind of like a throwaway comment an episode or two ago, but basically Dylan was getting some work in. He. He was working back from being a little banged up, but nonetheless, it wasn't that bad, right? He was in the bullpen before a game and was working out and he got hit in the head by a home run. Like a batting practice home run.
[00:13:24] So he got a concussion. Had to go into concussion protocol, which, like, first off, I mean, like you kind of surprised it doesn't happen more, but like that would happen to South Carolina.
[00:13:36] So then the other day, he's basically coming out of concussion protocol and he's doing some work on the field, he's stretching.
[00:13:46] Told Paul Manneri he felt a little tight. Didn't think it was anything, just said he was going to stretch it out, do whatever. Turns out he has an oblique injury, so go figure. Like, I don't even know what to say. Like, and Esky was a guy who, you know, it's not like he was this stud, three time all American, all SEC pitcher, was a guy you maybe saw could grow into some of these things, but he was someone you were supposed to rely on in your rotation here.
[00:14:20] And so now he's gone. So just things again, just looking bleak a little bit. But yeah, concussion leading to an oblique strain. Check that off your bucket list. Bingo sheet, whatever you want to say.
[00:14:34] Wow. But okay, let's. Let's talk about something fun here, shall we? Let's talk women's basketball. Saving the best for last here. They're the real stars of the show, the real stars of the episode, the real stars of Gamecock athletics right now. Okay. In the Sweet sixteen yet again, humble brag here because nobody asked. I did a women's bracket with some friends. I'm in the 99th percentile. I know women's college basketball, 99%.
[00:15:07] So want that on record. But nonetheless, I digress. Friday evening, the ladies are set to take on Maryland. It's kind of funny, these teams, Maryland and South Carolina, will know who waits ahead for who waits Ahead of them for the winner as Duke plays UNC in our quadrant before that game. So you got that rivalry game going on. Winner of that will take on the winner of Maryland and South Carolina. Maryland finished fourth in the Big Ten and are a four seed in this tournament. They are really led by their guard play, which I do feel South Carolina can match my crow to the game here. I got two of them. Okay. The first, you got to bring it for four quarters. Okay. @ this point in the tournament, we can't afford to have a bad quarter yet alone. A bad half struggled early in our last matchup against Indiana. We've seen a couple times this season. South Carolina has a sluggish quarter, maybe like a sluggish first half. You're able to recover from it more times than not. Just because of our talent and our depth. But that's not a gamble. I think you want to take in the sweet 16.
[00:16:23] You know, Maryland had a hard fought game to get here. I think they finished the season ranked 18th. See, you know, you got to take them seriously. You know, they have some players.
[00:16:36] And again, it's just not a situation where you want to be in the Sweet 16. Having to play from behind in a big way. That's the dangerous game.
[00:16:46] Yes. It's about surviving and advancing and winning any way you can. But if South Carolina brings it for four quarters, we have the talent and the depth to handle darn near anybody. So just come out there, play your game from the jump. Yeah. If you go on a little bit of a cold streak here or there, Maryland goes on a run. Of course that's allowed. I'm just saying, y'all know what I'm talking about. We've seen what I'm talking about. Just don't have that right.
[00:17:14] My second crow to the game here is play through our bigs. I've said this before, but Kitts, Fagan and Edwards need to be on their A game. I've called them out before and they all have progressively gotten better. And really shout out Chloe Kitts, too. I mean, they've all had their moments. They've all had good seasons. Right. Joyce Edwards, freshman year, phenomenal. Sinai Fagan, asked to do a lot this year, more than she had in the past, did a phenomenal job. Chloe Kitts, I feel like it's someone who really SEC tournament through now has elevated her game.
[00:17:52] So they need to play incredibly well to take advantage of. What I can tell at least is a Maryland team that relies on their guards more than their bigs. Like thought process. Here being their guards are going to do a lot of damage. So if we can win on the glass, get offensive rebounds, get defensive rebounds and just punish them inside, could stretch them out a little bit. So that's the idea behind it, because I think our guards can match up with theirs. So take advantage of what your advantages, which is our bigs.
[00:18:26] So it's going to be fun. It's going to be stressful. Friday evening. Way to start the weekend and let the chips fall where they may. You know, this is an experienced group with an experienced coach.
[00:18:38] They've been here before, darn near all of them. So trust the process and let's go. This is what we're built for. This is what South Carolina women's basketball is built for. March deep. March runs. Let's freaking go.
[00:18:56] But with that, y'all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is Cox Gamecox. Don't forget the Etsy store. Got some fun South Carolina Koozies Shop CTGC on Etsy, Instagram. Just the name of the show, Cox Talking Gamecocks. In case I didn't say that already. But please, like, subscribe and review the pod. I appreciate all y'all go Cocks.
