South Carolina Baseball: Important schedule/weather update for weekend series

The South Carolina baseball series vs. LSU was always going to be affected by the weather. The question was just “When?” The forecast has rain a real possibility all three days of the Thursday, Friday, Saturday series, and some fans wondered if any games would be played at all.

Fast forward to Thursday evening, and the Gamecocks and Tigers were locked into game 1 of the #1 vs. #6 matchup when lightning struck near the stadium. A weather delay ensued, but play was able to resume. In what could be described as either a baseball game or a Gamecock home run launch party, South Carolina hit four long balls off arguably the best pitching staff in college baseball to win the game 14-5.

It was announced that the two teams would try to get two games in on Friday as the forecast provided almost no hope for a Saturday contest. (By SEC rule, no Thursday-Saturday series can extend to Sunday; teams have three days to play their three-game series).

With first pitch at noon on Friday, Carolina and LSU will attempt to play a doubleheader in an effort to play the whole series. With rain scheduled to make its unwelcome appearance around 2:00, getting both games in seems like a long shot. If the noon contest ends before the harsh weather, the series finale is set to begin after a one-hour break between games. Both matchups are scheduled to be full nine-inning games.

For fans with tickets to either the scheduled Friday game or the scheduled Saturday game, this announcement is for you: the first leg of Friday’s doubleheader will serve as game 2 of the series, and the second leg will act as game 3. This means that ticket holders for the originally-scheduled Friday contest will have their seats honored for the first contest on Friday. Ticket holders for Saturday’s contest will have their tickets honored for the second game of the doubleheader.

All Friday and Saturday ticket holders will be able to attend both games of the doubleheader. However, Saturday tickets will only grant “standing room only” access to the first game of the doubleheader and access to seats during the second game, while Friday tickets will do the opposite: Friday tickets will grants access to seats during the noon game and “standing room only” access for the second half of the back-to-back.

The full announcement from gamecocksonline.com can be found here.

Carolina hurler Jack Mahoney is expected to be on the mound for Friday’s noon first pitch, but it is unclear who will pitch the second game if the weather allows it to happen.