South Carolina Baseball: Week 11 Preview; How to watch vs. Auburn
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina baseball just finished its toughest stretch of the 2023 schedule. Against #1 LSU, #4 Vanderbilt, and #3 Florida, the Gamecocks lost just three total games, and they held the potent Florida offense to single-digit runs total in a three-game sweep. The Gamecocks have surged all the way up to #3 in the latest D1Baseball rankings. USC now has the best overall record and conference record in the SEC and is up to #1 in the RPI.
What is perhaps most impressive about this Gamecock baseball run is that the team has done most of their work shorthanded. All season, the team has been without starting pitcher candidate Roman Kimball, reliever Ricky Williams, starting 1B/LF/RF/DH candidate Jacob Compton, and infielder Connor Fuhrman. The injuries didn’t stop there, however, as one of the top second basemen in the country Will McGillis (broken arm) and top starting pitcher Noah Hall (back) were injured in March and haven’t come back yet.
Carson Hornung missed some time with a foot injury and has been playing injured ever since. 1B/DH slugger Gavin Casas has been out several games with a lung issue that began with a collision on the bases, and starting 3B Talmadge LeCroy hurt his hamstring and hasn’t returned.
With no mid-week contest leading up to the Auburn series this weekend, the Gamecocks hope to get a little healthier. Casas and LeCroy have been considered day-to-day, and McGillis is close to his 6-week recovery timetable. Hornung’s injury can only improve with the time off. Hall’s back injury is a bit more up in the air.
On Friday night, the Gamecocks will host the Auburn Tigers. Auburn comes in off a series victory over Mississippi State. The Tigers have a good offense that has scored at least five runs in 17 out of its last 20 games (one more than the Gamecocks over the same span). The orange and blue offense is led by All-SEC caliber bats Bryson Ware and Cooper McMurray. Both players own slugging percentages significantly above .700 and have hit double-digit home runs.
Where South Carolina can really separate itself is with pitching. While the Gamecocks rank top-5 nationally in both ERA (3rd) and WHIP (5th), Auburn’s pitching ranks 190th in the country in ERA and 207th in WHIP. The Carolina bats should have plenty of good pitches to hit this weekend. The Auburn pitching staff is a mess of inconsistency and possesses one of the highest walk rates in the conference. Only two pitchers on the whole team have ERAs under 4.00 (starter Tommy Vail and reliever Parker Carlson).
The Gamecocks are far superior to the Tigers, but Auburn is still an SEC program with talent. If South Carolina plays a similar brand of defense that cost them the Vanderbilt series, they could be in danger of losing to Auburn, as well. However, with no mid-week game, the Carolina bullpen will be at full strength (minus the injured players), so if the starting pitching can limit the Auburn offense, the Gamecocks will be in good shape.
A sweep in the SEC should never be predicted, but it is certainly in play this weekend against Auburn. Anything short of a convincing series win will be a disappointment for the YardCocks. Winning the series, though, puts South Carolina baseball in an enviable position concerning the top-8 national seeds.
Road trips to Lexington, Kentucky and Fayetteville, Arkansas are looming (as well as a home series against the surging Tennessee Volunteers), but barring disasters in those three top-25 matchups, Carolina will be considered a virtual lock to host a regional and, perhaps, even more.
In the series against Auburn, Friday’s first pitch is scheduled for 7:00 and will be broadcast on the SECNetwork+. Game 2 on Saturday is also slated to be shown on the SECNetwork+ but will start at 4:00. A noon first pitch on Sunday for game 3 will be viewable on the SECNetwork.