It’s time for conference play. South Carolina has finished with the appetizer portion of their schedule, and now it’s on to the main course. The Georgia Bulldogs are coming to Carolina Stadium for the weekend.
Last Meeting: Last season in Athens, the Gamecocks swept the Bulldogs. The season before South Carolina swept Georgia in Columbia.
Pitching Probables: On Friday night South Carolina will start Michael Roth (4-0, 0.99 ERA). Saturday and Sunday are up in the air. There have been some indications that Steven Neff (2-0, 3.07) will get the start on Saturday. Sunday is completely undecided. Tyler Webb (2-1, 1.93) is a possibility to start then.
Georgia’s weekend rotation has had some variety this season as well, though it has stabilized the last two weeks. The Friday night starter has been Sophomore left hander Alex Wood (1-2, 4.32). Junior right-hander Michael Palazzone (2-1, 3.13) has started Saturday the last two weeks. Sunday will probably be left handed junior Craig Gullickson (1-1, 4.50).
This Season: Georgia’s season didn’t begin well. The Bulldogs traveled to Stetson and got swept. They then lost two of three to Baylor the next weekend at home and lost two of three to Florida State at home. They seemed to get things on track last week when, after beating Mercer and Alabama on the road, UGa beat UCLA, Southern Cal, and Saint Mary’s in Los Angeles over the weekend. They followed those impressive wins up with a 12-8 loss at home to the Kennesaw State Owls.
Pitching: Georgia’s had some high scoring games this season, and their starting pitchers’ ERAs show that. Wood and Palazzone don’t walk many people; both have a strikeout to walk ratio of 21:3. Gullickson appears to be the weakest of the three with a strikeout to walk ratio of 8:4. Opposing batters are also batting .286 against him. In contrast to last weekend’s Bakersfield pitchers, few of the Bulldog pitchers go deep into games. Palazzone is averaging just under 6 innings; Wood is averaging 5 2/3; Gullickson is averaging on 4 innings. If Georgia has a save situation, they will probably turn to Junior right-hander Tyler Maloof (0-0, 2.45, 6 saves).
Batting: There are a few batters that Carolina fans need to be aware of. Levi Hyams is batting a team leading .362. Center Fielder Zach Cone is batting .310 with a homerun and 7 RBIs. Kyle Farmer is only batting .233 but he is leading the team with 15 RBIs. The Bulldogs don’t walk much: they have 36 walks against 66 for their opponents. Although they are successful when they try, they rarely attempt to steal bases. They have swiped 13 in 16 attempts. In contrast, their opponents have stolen 30 in 37 attempts.
What South Carolina Needs from this Weekend: This Georgia team hasn’t defined itself yet. It’s too early to say that they are a strong team, although they’ve played a strong schedule. They can’t exactly be written off either. Without being able to pigeon hole the Bulldogs, I would say South Carolina needs a series win. They don’t need a sweep, but of course that would always be nice. If they drop the series, it will be difficult to make that up agains the rest of the conference.
