South Carolina plays its unique series this weekend against Clemson after beating Furman the other day 14-1. This coming Friday night the teams play in Columbia; on Saturday they play at Flour Field in Greenville, and the series finale is played in Clemson. Both teams are coming off College World Series appearances and return plenty of players from those teams.
Last Meeting(s): The Gamecocks and Tigers last met in Omaha where South Carolina won two games in a row to go the the National Championship Series and send Clemson back to Pickens County.
Pitching Probables:
| South Carolina | Clemson |
| M. Roth | S. Weismann |
| T. Webb | D. Leone / D. Haselden |
| A. Westmoreland | K. Brady |
This season: South Carolina is 7-0 having played all of its games at home. Clemson is 5-1, pending Wednesday night’s game with Wofford. Neither South Carolina nor Clemson has played a great schedule yet, so the records could be deceiving. Nonetheless, with the exception of Clemson’s loss to Eastern Michigan the teams have beaten the teams they were supposed to.
Breaking down the match-up: Clemson’s team has gotten plenty of preseason press. The Tigers surprise run to Omaha has left their fans and not a few analysts expecting big things this year. The Tigers return most of their offense, which was never a problem last year. They also return the core of their pitching, which failed to hold a lead at times. This is a pretty good offensive team, whose pitching performed very well in the post season, but if they are to live up to their hype this season, their pitching will have to prove itself.
South Carolina similarly returns most of it offense. The Gamecocks are breaking in three new weekend starters. The early returns have been positive, but the pitchers will have to prove themselves against a higher caliber of offense before we’ll feel comfortable calling that part of the team a strength.
What South Carolina needs from the weekend: A sweep. It’s not OK to lose to Clemson. But, if South Carolina does lose some of these games they need to avoid the sweep. That way, if they play Clemson in the post season they can win their two games and take the season series.
