Friday night certainly didn't go as planned for Vanderbilt.

A five-run sixth inning and four-run seventh put Vanderbilt in a hole that it couldn't recover from in its 14-6 loss to South Carolina.

The Commodores sorely missed Carter Holton, who had started all of their previous series openers and posted a 3-0 record along with a 2.59 ERA in those starts.

Vanderbilt has been able to hang its hat on pitching and defense all season. In Friday night's 14-run performance by South Carolina that included two Vanderbilt errors, it certainly didn't have that feel.

South Carolina started off the night’s scoring in the first after Dylan Brewer reached on a Jonathan Vastine error and South Carolina catcher Cole Messina took a Bryce Cunningham fastball over the left field wall for a two-run homer.

Cunningham punched out former Vanderbilt first baseman Gavin Casas to end the inning, but the Commodores already trailed 2-0 by the time they got to the plate.

Vanderbilt’s offense gave it some life in the bottom half of the inning but a Jack Bulger double play left two on base and kept the Commodores scoreless.

That offensive life carried over into the second inning in which Vastine tied things up at two with a two-out double that he advanced to third on. Vastine drove in Parker Noland and Matthew Polk with the double, Noland reached on a walk and Polk reached on a single. The Commodores weren’t done there, though.

Later in the inning, Davis Diaz ripped a double down the right-field line to plate Vastine and Enrique Bradfield Jr, that upped the Commodores’ lead to 4-2.

In the fourth, South Carolina cut the lead to 4-3 on a second Messina homer. Michael Braswell added a solo homer in the fourth and Ethan Petry gave South Carolina a 5-4 lead in the sixth with a home run to the opposite field.

Cunningham exited the game in the sixth after giving up five runs (three earned), six hits and a walk while striking out seven.

Sam Hliboki came in to stop the bleeding that Petry started early in the sixth but surrendered three runs on four hits in the inning. Vanderbilt trailed 9-4 as it came to the plate in the bottom half of the inning.

Hliboki gave up four more runs in the seventh as South Carolina got out to a 13-4 lead.

Jack Bulger and RJ Schreck drove in runs in the seventh to trim the lead to seven.

Colton Regen entered the game in the eighth to make his second appearance of the season but walked in a run to give South Carolina its 14th of the night.

In Vanderbilt's final opportunity to get back into this one, Bradfield Jr., Diaz and Schreck went down in order to end this one.

Vanderbilt moved to 27-7 and 11-2 in Southeastern Conference play with the loss.