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COLUMBIA, S.C. - The rally caps almost worked. Almost.

After keeping their hopes of making the SEC Tournament alive with a win Thursday night, Tennessee's chances of going to Hoover, Ala., ended with a 7-5 loss to South Carolina.

The loss will keep the Vols out of the postseason for the first time since 2006.

"I'm encouraged that we didn't quit. A lot of teams could've quit," Tennessee coach Todd Raleigh said.

"We don't make any errors, we out hit them but we don't win. But we played a good game. We played hard. It went down to the last pitch of the game. Our kids battled hard. That's all you can ask for."

After pounding out 13 runs Thursday night, Tennessee fell behind early thanks to an RBI single by South Carolina's Justin Smoak in the bottom of the first inning off Vols starter Bryan Morgado (5-5). South Carolina (36-19, 14-15 SEC) added to the lead later in the inning on a Phil Disher RBI double to go up 2-0.

But the Vols (27-28, 12-17 SEC) responded with a rally as Danny Lima reached second on a single and error by Gamecocks second baseman Scott Wingo. Lima was brought home by Josh Liles on a long single to left field.

The score would stay at 2-1 until the fifth inning when the Carolina offense exploded for five runs, started by a leadoff solo home run by designated hitter Parker Bangs. Andrew Crisp drove in two with a single to give the Gamecocks a 7-1 advantage.

For the majority of the game, the Vols offense was kept at bay by Gamecock starter Nick Godwin. The senior right-hander tossed 7 1/3 innings, striking out six en route to his first win since being moved to the weekend rotation.

"He did a good job. He threw three pitches for a strike. He didn't throw, he pitched. Kind of the opposite of our guy. Our guy threw hard but didn't pitch. Their guy pitched," Raleigh said of Godwin.

Trailing 7-2 going into the top of the eighth inning, the Vols' looked to have recaptured some of the magic from last night as right fielder Josh Liles hit a three-run homer to pull Tennessee within striking distance at 7-5.

"I was expecting a curve ball and he left it up," Liles said.

The Vols put the tying runners on base in the ninth but couldn't score.

"We played a good game today. We had a lot of young guys do a lot of good things. We're going to be fine," Raleigh said.

"Obviously our season is going to be over (today), but we've still accomplished a lot this year. We've got a lot of good things to look forward to."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.