South Carolina Gamecocks baseball: Five keys to winning the SEC Tournament
By Sydney Hunte
What’s the key to the South Carolina Gamecocks winning the SEC Tournament this week in Hoover, Alabama? We don’t have just one–we’ve actually got five:
1. Get good, solid starting pitching. The Gamecocks’ troika of Jack Wynkoop (7-4, 2.80), Wil Crowe (7-3, 3.05) and Jordan Montgomery (7-4, 3.26) have been pretty good throughout the season as a whole. While that pales in comparison to what pitchers like LSU’s Aaron Nola (9-1, 1.42) and Kentucky’s A.J. Reed (10-2, 2.11) have done, each have had their share of rock-solid performances, and they’ll need to bring that to the table this week.
Needless to say, if Grayson Greiner, Kyle Martin and Joey Pankake aren’t hitting, this team isn’t winning in Hoover.
2. Get production out of the heart of the lineup.
Needless to say, if Grayson Greiner, Kyle Martin and Joey Pankake aren’t hitting, this team isn’t winning in Hoover, let alone getting far in the NCAA Tournament. This becomes even more important given the fact that there’s a chance that the team may be without Connor Bright and Max Schrock for some, if not all, of the tournament.
3. Convert with runners on/runners in scoring position. If there’s one thing that’s been the most maddening about this team this season, it’s been the failure to produce with runners in scoring position. They’ve mostly been able to get away with it sometimes, but there have been several games in which that has been the clear difference between a win and a loss. (Ask Wil Crowe.)
4. Continue to play solid defense. The Gamecocks have committed the second-fewest errors in the league (51) but have gotten themselves into a little hot water at times due to shoddy fielding. It hasn’t been a major problem, so they will need to keep that pace up throughout the week.
5. Bullpen continues to perform. Unquestionably, the most consistent part of this Gamecocks team day in and day out has been their bullpen. Clubs like Kentucky score a ton of runs, but don’t have pitching (4.04); South Carolina doesn’t always score a lot of runs, but still have guys that can close the door toward the end of games. Rarely have teams come back from deficits late in games this season against Cody Mincey, Joel Seddon, and the rest of the pen, and the same will have to hold true this week in Hoover.