South Carolina Baseball: Week 2 Preview; Winthrop, Queens, Penn

South Carolina baseball just finished one of its most dominating series ever, sweeping the UMass-Lowell River Hawks in three games by a combined score of 49-5. The Gamecocks hit fourteen home runs and had solid pitching against a River Hawks squad that is expected to compete for its conference championship.

Week 2 on the schedule is loaded with five games, two in the mid-week against in-state Winthrop and Queens University from Charlotte and a three-game weekend series against the Ivy League’s Penn Quakers.

Winthrop is coming off its own opening weekend sweep over Long Island. The Eagles are not expected to contend for postseason play this season, according to D1baseball.com, but smaller teams typically play up against their big brothers in-state. Expect Winthrop to make the quick drive down the interstate and show up ready to play. The Gamecocks have not announced their starter for the game, but Head Coach Mark Kingston has expressed that two Elis (Jones and Jerzembeck) will pitch during the mid-week. Look for James Hicks to get an opportunity, as well. The game against Winthrop will be at 4:00 on Tuesday at Founder’s Park and be streamable on SECNetwork+ and the ESPN App.

The following day, Queens University of Charlotte also will travel down I-77 to meet the Gamecocks for just their fourth-ever game at the division-1 level. Having moved up from D-2 this offseason, Queens was a very good program at that level, so don’t expect the Royals to just roll over. With no starter yet announced, Gamecock fans will likely see either Eli Jones or Eli Jerzembeck get the start. Neither player has pitched yet this season but both are considered potential starters. The matchup with Queens will be at 4:00 on Wednesday at Founder’s Park and be streamable on the SECNetwork+ and the ESPN App.

The weekend series against the Penn Quakers will be the Ivy League school’s first game action of the season. In Perfect Game’s Ivy League preview, the Quakers are projected to compete for the league’s top spot and have three infielders among the first-team performers on the preseason All-Ivy team. Owen Coady might be the best pitcher in the Ivy League, as well, and should get the start against Will Sanders on Friday. The Gamecocks likely will utilize the same pitching rotation from last weekend (Sanders, Hall, Mahoney) and employ a similar lineup to the one that clubbed UMass-Lowell pitching to the tune of 49 runs last weekend. All three games of the Penn series will be on the SECNetwork+ and the ESPN App, and the start times are 4:00 (Friday), 2:00 (Saturday), and 1:30 (Sunday).