Responding To Adversity Key To SEC Success
posted by Scott Hood on Friday, May 23, 2008
One of the key questions entering Thursday’s SEC Tournament baseball game between South Carolina and Florida was how the Gamecocks would respond to Wednesday’s devastating 5-4 defeat to LSU.
Ray Tanner has experienced a lot of success at USC, and one of the reasons for that is the Gamecocks have avoided long losing streaks. They had a four-game skid in late April and early May and a pair of three-game losing streaks, but USC was able to start winning again each time.
After getting swept at Georgia in three close games, the Gamecocks responded by winning eight straight games and 11 of 12 overall.
So, Thursday’s impressive “bounce back” performance in the win over Florida didn’t surprise me at all.
But the SEC demands an iron will if you want to win in this league. It will eat you alive if you get too high and keep you buried if you get too low.
It doesn’t matter which sport we’re talking about – football, men’s basketball or baseball. At one point or another, every team in the SEC will face adversity. The league is simply too good across the board to have it any other way.
How each specific team handles adversity and responds to it will typically determine who’s successful and who’s not. It’s mental challenge as much as a physical one.
In my opinion, the collapse of the USC football team in the aftermath of the Vanderbilt debacle shows they still have work to do when it comes to handling adversity.
The men’s basketball team is in the same boat. Right now, the Gamecock baseball team is the only one of the big three sports that has learned to consistently overcome adversity.
Thursday’s win over Florida provides a good example. USC had already proven this season they could beat the Gators as long as they played well, so it was simply a matter of going on the field and executing.
And, boy, did they execute.
USC discovered the hard way Wednesday that walks are lethal killers in baseball. Well, Nick Godwin and Mike Cisco combined for just one free pass on Thursday.
Throw strikes, you win. Walk people, you lose. It’s as simple as that.
Well, you still have to do some other things, but the foundation of any winning baseball team is a pitching staff that consistently throws strikes.
USC has been able to do that for the most part this season, with the bottom of the ninth inning of Wednesday’s loss to LSU being a very visible exception.
But the Gamecocks improved to two other key areas as well. First, they reduced their strikeouts from 13 against LSU to seven. That’s a sign they were making better contact and putting more pressure on the defense to make plays.
It’s funny thing, but when you put the ball in play and force the opponent to play defense, guess what? It doesn’t always happen, as evidenced by Florida’s three errors on Thursday.
Two of the three Gator errors led directly to USC runs on Thursday. James Darnell was allowed to go to third on a throwing error by the UF shortstop after doubling. He then scored on a groundout by Phil Disher.
Without the error, Darnell would have been at third rather than the dugout after crossing home plate. It was huge run at the time because it made the score 6-3 with plenty of baseball remaining.
The third error came in the bottom of the eighth when the Florida left fielder flat out dropped a routine fly by DeAngelo Mack.
Had the play been made, Justin Smoak would have never come to the plate with two outs. We all know what happened – the junior 1B crushed a three-run home run to centerfield that put the game out of reach and broke Florida’s back.
The second way USC improved from the opening game loss to LSU was it reduced the number of runners stranded in half from 10 to five. Three of those came in one inning – the five-run second when USC took a lead it would never relinquish.
Really, Thursday’s game provided the classic recipe for winning most baseball games, and it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about little league, Division I college baseball or the major leagues:
1. Throw strikes (i.e. minimize walks) and play solid, fundamentally sound defense;
2. Make contact at the plate (i.e. minimize the number of strikeouts) and force the defense to make plays against you;
3. Drive in runners when they get on base (i.e. minimize the number of runners left stranded).
Truly, baseball is not that complicated of a game.
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Responding positively to adversity is a key to success in any endeavor, and it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about athletics or life in general.
One of the key questions entering Thursday’s SEC Tournament baseball game between South Carolina and Florida was how the Gamecocks would respond to Wednesday’s devastating 5-4 defeat to LSU.
Ray Tanner has experienced a lot of success at USC, and one of the reasons for that is the Gamecocks have avoided long losing streaks. They had a four-game skid in late April and early May and a pair of three-game losing streaks, but USC was able to start winning again each time.
After getting swept at Georgia in three close games, the Gamecocks responded by winning eight straight games and 11 of 12 overall.
So, Thursday’s impressive “bounce back” performance in the win over Florida didn’t surprise me at all.
But the SEC demands an iron will if you want to win in this league. It will eat you alive if you get too high and keep you buried if you get too low.
It doesn’t matter which sport we’re talking about – football, men’s basketball or baseball. At one point or another, every team in the SEC will face adversity. The league is simply too good across the board to have it any other way.
How each specific team handles adversity and responds to it will typically determine who’s successful and who’s not. It’s mental challenge as much as a physical one.
In my opinion, the collapse of the USC football team in the aftermath of the Vanderbilt debacle shows they still have work to do when it comes to handling adversity.
The men’s basketball team is in the same boat. Right now, the Gamecock baseball team is the only one of the big three sports that has learned to consistently overcome adversity.
Thursday’s win over Florida provides a good example. USC had already proven this season they could beat the Gators as long as they played well, so it was simply a matter of going on the field and executing.
And, boy, did they execute.
USC discovered the hard way Wednesday that walks are lethal killers in baseball. Well, Nick Godwin and Mike Cisco combined for just one free pass on Thursday.
Throw strikes, you win. Walk people, you lose. It’s as simple as that.
Well, you still have to do some other things, but the foundation of any winning baseball team is a pitching staff that consistently throws strikes.
USC has been able to do that for the most part this season, with the bottom of the ninth inning of Wednesday’s loss to LSU being a very visible exception.
But the Gamecocks improved to two other key areas as well. First, they reduced their strikeouts from 13 against LSU to seven. That’s a sign they were making better contact and putting more pressure on the defense to make plays.
It’s funny thing, but when you put the ball in play and force the opponent to play defense, guess what? It doesn’t always happen, as evidenced by Florida’s three errors on Thursday.
Two of the three Gator errors led directly to USC runs on Thursday. James Darnell was allowed to go to third on a throwing error by the UF shortstop after doubling. He then scored on a groundout by Phil Disher.
Without the error, Darnell would have been at third rather than the dugout after crossing home plate. It was huge run at the time because it made the score 6-3 with plenty of baseball remaining.
The third error came in the bottom of the eighth when the Florida left fielder flat out dropped a routine fly by DeAngelo Mack.
Had the play been made, Justin Smoak would have never come to the plate with two outs. We all know what happened – the junior 1B crushed a three-run home run to centerfield that put the game out of reach and broke Florida’s back.
The second way USC improved from the opening game loss to LSU was it reduced the number of runners stranded in half from 10 to five. Three of those came in one inning – the five-run second when USC took a lead it would never relinquish.
Really, Thursday’s game provided the classic recipe for winning most baseball games, and it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about little league, Division I college baseball or the major leagues:
1. Throw strikes (i.e. minimize walks) and play solid, fundamentally sound defense;
2. Make contact at the plate (i.e. minimize the number of strikeouts) and force the defense to make plays against you;
3. Drive in runners when they get on base (i.e. minimize the number of runners left stranded).
Truly, baseball is not that complicated of a game.
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.