South Carolina Baseball: Important updates on injuries, weekend series vs. LSU

South Carolina baseball has one of its best teams in years, and this weekend’s series vs. LSU could go a long way in determining the top seeds in the SEC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament’s regional and super regional host sites. There are some important things to know before this weekend, however.

Injuries

Will McGillis is still out. The second baseman has hit ten home runs for the Gamecocks this season, and his absence will be felt while he continues recovering from his broken arm. McGillis has progressed to his second cast, but he is still several weeks away from a return. Michael Braswell has performed well in relief of McGillis but does not possess the same power.

Carson Hornung is back…sorta. The lefty has been battling a small fracture in his foot for the past couple of weeks and has barely played. Head Coach Mark Kingston has updated his availability for the big series vs. the Bayou Bengals: instead of only being able to potentially pinch hit, Hornung has progressed to being available to DH. It is unclear how well he can run, but if Hornung can DH for an entire game, he must be in a better place this week than he was last week.

The Dylan Brewer/Evan Stone combination in center and right has performed well (with Ethan Petry sliding to DH) while Hornung has been out. If Hornung does move back into the DH spot, expect Petry to return to right field and one of Brewer or Stone to play center.

Starting pitcher Noah Hall dealt with some back issues that limited his effectiveness against Mississippi State last weekend. It was Hall’s worst start of the year, and his status for the LSU series is unknown. Will Sanders is a candidate to return to the rotation whether Hall pitches or not but seems like a virtual lock to pitch if Hall can’t go. Eli Jones took Sanders’ spot last weekend but pitched an inning in the Gamecocks’ victory over North Carolina on Tuesday, and Eli Jerzembeck and Matthew Becker each threw three innings. James Hicks is fully rested and available.

EDIT: Noah Hall has been ruled out of the weekend rotation with his back issue, Will Sanders will return to pitch Thursday, Jack Mahoney will pitch Friday, and the third game (if the weather allows) is still TBA.

The Weather

The LSU series is scheduled to be played Thursday through Saturday, but there is likely going to be bad weather in Columbia this weekend. Heavy rain and potential storms are forecasted for Friday and Saturday, and a small chance of rain even exists for Thursday.

Because of SEC rules, the series will not have any game moved to Easter Sunday (it’s supposed to rain that day, too, anyway). The Tigers and Gamecocks will have three days to play three games, from Thursday to Saturday. According to an announcement from the University, there is no plan in place currently to change any of the start times or days.

If weather demands that things change for the series, a doubleheader on Thursday seems unlikely as LSU has a long way to travel. Friday and Saturday are supposed to have the worst weather, especially Saturday, so having one of the games rained out is a real possibility. If anything does change, the University is very good about announcing scheduling shifts as soon as things are official.