South Carolina Baseball: Week 8 preview; how to watch vs. North Carolina, LSU
By Kevin Miller
In arguably the most dominant SEC that college baseball has ever seen, the South Carolina baseball team appears to have its best team in a decade. Last week, the Gamecocks went 3-1 with a series win on the road against the 2021 national championship-winning Mississippi State Bulldogs. D1Baseball has Mark Kingston’s club ranked 6th in the country, and only Wake Forest has matched Carolina’s 26-3 record.
The Gamecocks have a big week ahead of them as they will take on the Tar Heels of North Carolina during the mid-week, and LSU will travel to Columbia for a big-time series at Founders Park. UNC is ranked 13th in the polls, and the Bayou Bengals sit at the top, ranked first by D1Baseball.
With the LSU series another Thursday-Saturday matchup, it is doubtful that the Tuesday starter against North Carolina will be a pitcher who typically throws on the weekend. With uncertainty surrounding Will Sanders’ role, the Gamecocks are unlikely to start Sanders, Eli Jones, James Hicks, Matthew Becker, or Eli Jerzembeck as all five potential starters will likely throw against LSU. Last week against The Citadel, Sam Simpson started, and the Gamecocks utilized six relievers. Hicks and Jerzembeck used the game as a bullpen session when things were out of hand.
For this matchup with North Carolina, no one knows what to expect. Usually pretty similar in talent, four of the last six matchups between the two teams (all in Charlotte) have been blowouts. UNC has won four of those games. North Carolina has a very good offense just like South Carolina does, but the Tar Heels have not been quite as good on the mound as the Gamecocks have been.
The big weekend series could go a long way in determining who wins the SEC regular season title and which teams are seeded as the top national seeds when regional and super regional host sites are announced. LSU has been ranked at the top or near the top of the rankings all season and has three SEC series wins over three teams ranked in the top-11 at the time of the series.
The Tigers’ bats have been almost as good as the Gamecocks’ offense. LSU doesn’t hit quite as many home runs (no team does), but they are a tough out and actually have scored a few more runs than Carolina has en route to leading the nation in times crossing the plate.
Outfielder Dylan Crews leads the nation with an astronomical .543 batting average and .664 on-base percentage. Despite not hitting as many long balls, the LSU offense has more players who boast a .500+ slugging percentage, a testament to the team’s ability to get on base (1st nationally in team OBP) and to drive the ball into the gap. Gavin Dugas led the conference in RBI in 2021 and is having a good 2023 season.
LSU pitching has been incredible this season, and Paul Skenes has been arguably the best hurler in the country. He has a sub-1.00 ERA, a 0.61 WHIP, and an absurd 83-8 K/BB ratio. The bullpen has been very good, as well. The good news for the Gamecocks, though, is that the pitching numbers have just been “really good” the last two weeks instead of the “maybe the best start to a season ever” numbers the Tigers’ pitchers were putting up the first month of the year.
No news has come out regarding the weekend rotation against LSU. In addition to Will Sanders being skipped and/or removed from the weekend rotation, last weekend’s series against Mississippi State was also a Thursday-Saturday series. After Eli Jones subbed in for Sanders on Thursday, Noah Hall pitched on Friday, and Jack Mahoney pitched on Saturday. Hall struggled mightily for the first time all season, and some fans have wondered if it was because he was not pitching during his customary Saturday contest.
Ethan Petry and Gavin Casas continued hitting the ball over the fence last weekend, as the pair launched their 13th and 15th home runs, respectively. Because hits may be at a premium against the excellent pitching of LSU, homers could be a massive key to the weekend. Braylen Wimmer has been swinging a hot bat, and the Evan Stone/Dylan Brewer combination has performed better than expected at the plate during Carson Hornung’s absence with a foot injury.
LSU is the best fielding team in the SEC, and South Carolina has been around average with the glove. The only “hole” defensively for the Tigers is that freshman catcher Brady Neal has thrown out just three runners on the season. The Gamecocks will have the advantage on the bases and may look to run early and often if they can manage to get some runners on base. Carolina base stealers have only been caught twice all year, and Wimmer and Caleb Denny have combined for an almost-perfect 21-22 swiping bags on the season.
The North Carolina contest on Tuesday and games 1 and 2 (Thursday and Friday) against LSU will all be shown on the SECNework+ and ESPN App at 7:00. Saturday’s series finale will be played at noon on the SECNetwork.