The University of South Carolina baseball team (13-4) begin their quest for SEC glory this weekend versus the Tennessee Volunteers (10-7). The Gamecocks have won 7 straight games and recently defeated Davidson 8-3 at home after beating Furman Tuesday night 15-0.
South Carolina leads the all-time series vs. Tennessee 40-33 including three consecutive series victories over the Volunteers. The Gamecocks need to win this series versus Tennessee and then take two of three at Auburn coming up next. I would love to see a sweep in either of these upcoming match-ups but just win the series. If they do that and handle the non-conference games at Georgia Southern and home to the Citadel, it will be help to set the path for this team while giving needed confidence.
Pitching is key versus the Vols. South Carolina pitchers lead the Southeastern Conference in a couple of categories. The Gamecock pitchers have allowed opponents to hit just .214 on the year in 151.2 innings pitched and the staff has 183 strikeouts as well, both best among SEC staffs.
USC needs to be careful pitching to Zach Osborne and Cody Hawn as they are the two most dangerous hitters for UT as they have 7 homeruns between them and 27 RBIs.
The Vols are coming off a 13-2 route of Moorehead State so they are entering with some pep in their step.
South Carolina is hitting .310 (182-for-588) as a team with a .971 fielding percentage on the year as well as a 3.74 team ERA. The bats of Wingo, Merrifield, Morales and Enders need to be hot and SC needs to score early. Don’t allow this to be a close pitching duel. Avoid that and USC should win the needed 2 of 3 as I see Cooper and Dyson controlling things but worried about Webb on Sunday as a the 3rd starter is still a question mark for this team.
Probable Starting Pitchers
Friday
South Carolina Blake Cooper (Sr. RHP) 3-0, 3.28 ERA, 24.2 IP, 9 BB, 24 SO
Tennessee Bryan Morgado (Jr. LHP) 2-1, 5.16 ERA, 22.2 IP, 11 BB, 29 SO
Saturday
South Carolina Sam Dyson (Jr. RHP) 1-0, 6.23 ERA, 17.1 IP, 4 BB, 22 SO
Tennessee Aaron Tullo (Sr. RHP) 0-0, 3.52 ERA, 7.2 IP, 5 BB, 7 SO
Sunday
South Carolina Tyler Webb (Fr. LHP) 0-1, 3.45 ERA, 15.2 IP, 6 BB, 17 SO
Tennessee Stephen McCray (Sr. RHP)2-1, 0.73 ERA, 24.2 IP, 5 BB, 15 SO
