SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS BASEBALL
South Carolina’s in a dogfight for one of the final two spots in the SEC Tournament and starts a tough road to clinch that spot Friday with No. 4 Vanderbilt coming to town.
The Gamecocks sit at 5-16 in SEC play with three series to go, locked in a three-way tie currently with Alabama and Kentucky although the Tide hold the tiebreaker over South Carolina with still so much left to play for.
“I think you have to try and keep perspective for them and tell them how fortunate they are to be a part of this program and remind them of the proud tradition of the program. You still have to respect the game, respect the program and you have to give an honest day's work whether that’s practice or a game,” Gamecock head coach Mark Kingston said. “There’s no excuses for anything otherwise.”
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The Gamecocks start a big series on their path towards that goal this weekend with a Vanderbilt team in the thick of the national seed conversation and in the hunt for an SEC regular season title.
With an opponent like that coming in, Kingston said he may tweak the lineup some to try and spark an offense slashing .185/.282/.317 and averaging 3.33 runs per game in 21 conference games.
“You’ll probably see (Josiah) Sightler out there in the outfield a little bit, and there are maybe one or two more guys that may get more playing time than what we’re used to,” Kingston said. “We need to figure out what we have as well. Some guys have gotten more at-bats than others to varying levels of success. We may get a couple more guys some opportunities and see what happens.”
Sightler doesn’t have a hit in eight at-bats in SEC play but looked good last week in a midweek game, roping his first-career hit to left field and barreling a few other balls up.
The freshman first baseman/outfielder came to school with a lot of fanfare surrounding him and his teammates are hoping his development could start something down the stretch.
“I think Josiah’s done a pretty good job progressing throughout the season. Coming in as a freshman, I know because I came in last year, obviously you’re nervous,” Noah Campbell said. “You want to show what you can do but you never know what kind of opportunities you’re going to get. I feel like the best think with Josiah is he’s working really hard to get to the level where he knows he can be and where this team knows he can be. He’s done a good job working and getting better throughout the season.”
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Game times
Friday: 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)/ Saturday: 8 p.m. (ESPNU)/ Sunday: 1:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
Pitching match-ups (South Carolina listed first)
Friday: RHP Daniel Lloyd (3-3, 7.43 ERA) vs. RHP Drake Fellows Jr. (9-0, 3.67 ERA)
Saturday: RHP Reid Morgan (3-4, 3.63 ERA) vs. RHP Kumar Rocker (5-4, 4.31 ERA)
Sunday: TBA vs. RHP Patrick Raby (7-1, 2.77 ERA)
Scouting Vanderbilt
Vandy has plenty of pro prospects on its roster, headlined by potential first-round pick JJ Bleday and Austin Martin, who’s hitting .413 with 26 RBI this season. The Commodores have six everyday players hitting over .300 and are slashing .321/.417/.523 as a team on the season and averaging 7.1 runs in SEC play.
In terms of pitching, Drake Fellows anchors the staff with nine wins in 11 starts and has a .230 batting average against. As a staff, they have a 3.87 ERA and have struck out 472 batters to just 181 walks.
View all of Vanderbilt’s stats here.
In their own words
Noah Campbell on the team’s stretch run: “We have three weekends left. We’re staying positive, staying confident because we know we can get into the SEC Tournament, get better seeding in the SEC Tournament and play well enough in there to maybe win it and continue this season on. Obviously it’s been tough, but there’s never been this sense of ‘aw man, why us?’ It’s more like we have some opportunities to keep playing. We play two of the top teams in the country with our remaining three series and we have a chance to make a statement with them. We also have a chance to get in the SEC Tournament, win and move on to the tournament after that.”
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Andrew Eyster on his three-hit, four-RBI performance: “It’s been tough. I haven’t been the most productive player in the lineup with only a handful of RBIs coming in, so it was good to have a weekend where I contributed, drove in some runs and be the guy I was expected to be coming in. It’s something I hope I can carry into the next three weekends and whatever happens after that.”
Mark Kingston on this year’s struggles: “Going through this season and some of the struggles just reiterate the things you already know. When you have to learn them up close and personal it reemphasizes the need for a lot of veteran presence on your team. Experience really matters in this league, depth really matters in this league and high-end talent really matters in this league. You have to have everything to win in this league. if you don’t have some of those pieces, You’re going to struggle. That’s what happened to us; the injury bug hit us. it reiterates you have to have certain type of pitching, certain type of hitting and a certain type of defense. And you have to have some good fortune as well to do well in this league. We’ve been fine outside the league but inside the league it’s a different animal. It’s exposed some of our weaknesses and it reminds you of everything to put into a program to be successful.”
