SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS BASEBALL
NOTE: South Carolina and Alabama will now play a double header on Friday with Game 3 of the series on Saturday after Thursday's contest was rained out.
South Carolina at Alabama Updated Schedule
Game 1 - Friday, April 5, at 2:30 p.m. ET (TV: SEC Network Alternate)
Game 2 - Friday, April 5, 7 p.m. ET (TV: SEC Network)
Game 3 - Saturday, April 6 at 2 p.m. ET (TV: SECN+)
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During the course of a season, coaches and players just hope one loss during the midweek doesn’t lead to two. The Gamecocks are hoping for the exact opposite after a big win Tuesday.
South Carolina is fresh off a 10-8 walk-off win over No. 3 NC State Tuesday and are hoping that emotional of a win is a turning point in this year’s schedule as they hit the road for a three-game series against Alabama.
“Last year we kind of went through the same thing,” Jacob Olson said. ‘We got a win like this, then swept LSU and built off of it. Hopefully, this is it and we can turn this around this week.”
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The Gamecocks started that year 1-5 in the SEC but finished 16-8 over the final eight series to make the postseason and won their way to a Super Regional.
This year’s a little different with the Gamecocks (18-11) sitting at 2-7 in SEC play instead of the 4-5 they were at through nine league games last year.
With 21 games still left to play and facing an Alabama team with the same conference record, South Carolina knows it needs to start winning games if it wants to reach the goals the team set for itself.
“We’re trying to make up ground,” Mark Kingston said. “We’re not out of it by any stretch, by any stretch of any imagination. There are a lot of teams down there in our same spot, and there could be 10 to 11 teams make the NCAAs from our conference. We have to continue to battle and find a way into that top 10 or 11, if not better. Obviously we’re going to set our sights as high as we can but we’re not going to stop fighting. We know there’s a lot of season left.”
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Despite losing a home series to Auburn, the Gamecocks have looked better offensively and have cut down tremendously on the strikeouts.
They’re now second in the league instead of first in punch-outs and are still leading the SEC in home runs with 50, 15 better than second-place Ole Miss and Kingston hopes as the strikeouts continue to decrease the team’s fortune starts to increase.
“You sure hope so. Baseball is a game of momentum and usually momentum is your next pitcher so Danny Lloyd needs to do a nice job on (Friday), but it shows this team we’re making progress,” he said. “If we can commit to the things we’re working on, we can combine power and great at-bats. We did that tonight.”
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Pitching matchups (South Carolina listed first)
Friday Game 1: RHP Daniel Lloyd (2-2, 4.72 ERA) vs. RHP Sam Finnerty (4-3, 3.92 ERA)
Friday Game 2: RHP Reid Morgan (3-0, 2.17 ERA) vs. RHP Brock Love (3-1, 4.10 ERA)
Saturday: TBA vs. RHP Tyler Ras (1-2, 3.22 ERA)
Scouting Alabama
The Tide come in after getting swept on the weekend by Florida and losing by four runs in the midweek to Troy. As a team they’re slashing .271/.393/.401 with 21 homers this year compared to South Carolina’s .251/.349/.475 and 50 homers.
On the pitching side of things the Tide have a staff ERA of 3.40 in 270 innings had have struck out 262 batters compared to just 95 walks. They’re also fielding nine points better than the Gamecocks with a .982 percentage.
Infielders Kolby Robinson and Keith Holcombe make things tick for the Tide offensively, both hitting over .340 and combing for 43 RBI this season. Outfielder Tyler Gentry leads the team in homers with five and is hitting .278.
Righty Jeremy Randolph is potentially the best pitcher on staff with a 0.92 ERA and 0.68 WHIP in 19.2 innings
