It’s another week in the SEC, so that means another Top 5 Blockbuster match-up. The premier weekend series in the country will take place in Columbia, South Carolina. The defending national champion Gamecocks will host the current number one Vanderbilt Commodores.
The series is the second time the Gamecocks have faced the number one team this year. Earlier this season USC took two out of three games from Florida in Gainesville. Winning two out of three this weekend may be a taller order.
Here’s a look at the teams and message to our Vandy friends at the bottom:
Pitching: Both teams excel here. Vanderbilt has the lowest team ERA in the conference at 2.19. South Carolina is third with an ERA of 2.46. Opponents are batting .212 against Vanderbilt and .214 against South Carolina. Vanderbilt has allowed 93 runs; South Carolina has allowed 94.
Batting: Vanderbilt’s pitching staff has been fairly hyped, but their bats have been strong this year as well. The Commodores are batting a league best .313; the Gamecocks are in the middle of the pack at .289. For all those hits, Vanderbilt doesn’t hit many out. They have 12 home runs on the year compared to 30 for South Carolina. That is probably part of the reason why South Carolina is leading the conference in slugging percentage at .450, and Vandy is in the middle of the pack at .412.
Batting: Vanderbilt’s pitching staff has been fairly hyped, but their bats have been strong this year as well. The Commodores are batting a league best .313; the Gamecocks are in the middle of the pack at .289. For all those hits, Vanderbilt doesn’t hit many out. They have 12 home runs on the year compared to 30 for South Carolina. That is probably part of the reason why South Carolina is leading the conference in slugging percentage at .450, and Vandy is in the middle of the pack at .412.
Vandy Pitchers to Know: Sonny Gray. The junior right-hander is 7-1 with a 1.54 ERA. He has struck out 66 while walking 24. Opponents are batting .166 against him. He will be the Friday night starter against South Carolina’s Michael Roth (7-1, 1.25 ERA). You should also know about probable Saturday starter Grayson Garvin, too. He is 6-1 with a 2.04 ERA. He has struck out 50 against only 10 walks. Batters are hitting .196 against him.
Vandy Batters to Know: You may remember junior first baseman Aaron Westlake. He leads the conference with a .397 average. Anthony Gomez is batting .379 and has driven in 27. He isn’t much of a power threat and doesn’t have any home runs on the year. There are several other Commodores batting over .300: Jason Esposito (.320), Tony Kemp (.312) and Mike Yastrzemski (.303).
What South Carolina needs out of the weekend: The Gamecocks don’t need much out of the weekend. They are 10-2 in conference. Even if they only win one 11-4 is a great place to be after half of the conference schedule. That being said, 12-3 and first place in the East would be better. What the Gamecocks do need is some offense. The team hasn’t been scoring runs lately, and it finally cost them against The Citadel. You’d be a fool to complain about anything while this team won 9 in a row and 14 of 15, but many fans couldn’t help but notice that the run production was thin. If you know why this is, please tell me in the comments, but I can’t quite place it. I think it may be a combination of factors. The new bats are causing averages across the nation to fall. That’s certainly true of the Gamecocks. Some of South Carolina’s key contributers from last year are batting a little lower than they are accustomed to. They haven’t fallen off a cliff, but the aggregate effect of several players being several batting average points lower is contributing. This could also be one of those things. Sometimes teams get hot; sometimes teams cool off. Baseball can be a funny sport. If this is a time when the bats are a little cooler, be glad that it’s not the playoffs and be glad that the team is good enough to have won as much as they have with cold bats.
Vandy Batters to Know: You may remember junior first baseman Aaron Westlake. He leads the conference with a .397 average. Anthony Gomez is batting .379 and has driven in 27. He isn’t much of a power threat and doesn’t have any home runs on the year. There are several other Commodores batting over .300: Jason Esposito (.320), Tony Kemp (.312) and Mike Yastrzemski (.303).
What South Carolina needs out of the weekend: The Gamecocks don’t need much out of the weekend. They are 10-2 in conference. Even if they only win one 11-4 is a great place to be after half of the conference schedule. That being said, 12-3 and first place in the East would be better. What the Gamecocks do need is some offense. The team hasn’t been scoring runs lately, and it finally cost them against The Citadel. You’d be a fool to complain about anything while this team won 9 in a row and 14 of 15, but many fans couldn’t help but notice that the run production was thin. If you know why this is, please tell me in the comments, but I can’t quite place it. I think it may be a combination of factors. The new bats are causing averages across the nation to fall. That’s certainly true of the Gamecocks. Some of South Carolina’s key contributers from last year are batting a little lower than they are accustomed to. They haven’t fallen off a cliff, but the aggregate effect of several players being several batting average points lower is contributing. This could also be one of those things. Sometimes teams get hot; sometimes teams cool off. Baseball can be a funny sport. If this is a time when the bats are a little cooler, be glad that it’s not the playoffs and be glad that the team is good enough to have won as much as they have with cold bats.
Predicition: If South Carolina gets the bats going, they are going to win this series. I think they’ll win 2 games to 1. If they don’t get the bats going, it could be a long weekend; it could be a sweep, but I think Gamecock pitching will keep the games close enough that even with poorer hitting the team can steal one if they need to.
Oh and just a reminder to the Vandy fans on who is the favorite in this series…Respect it…
