It was an ideal opening act.
Daniel Lloyd, the latest South Carolina pitcher to get his crack at a Friday night start, not only set down Auburn in order, he did it with style. Swinging, looking, swinging. Three Tigers, three strikeouts. Lloyd, a freshman, was touching 93 mph on the Founders Park radar gun, perhaps a sign this chilly USC team was going to heat up after all.
But by the middle of the second inning, some momentum had worn off. The 15th-ranked Tigers had strung together enough hits to put pressure on the USC offense the rest of the evening.