South Carolina Baseball: Week 14 preview; How to watch vs Tennessee, Charlotte
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina baseball lost their third straight series this past weekend on the road at Arkansas. The optimistic Gamecock fan may have noticed that the Gamecocks looked significantly more competitive this weekend than they did the previous two series against Auburn and Kentucky. Carolina pitching, in particular, was much improved. If the offense can get back to its best-in-the-country hitting ways, then the Gamecocks could return to form.
As is almost always true in the SEC, the road doesn’t get any easier this week. In the regular season series finale, the South Carolina baseball program will welcome the Tennessee Volunteers to Columbia for a Thursday, Friday, Saturday series after a mid-week contest against Charlotte.
On Tuesday, the Gamecocks will be looking for some mid-week revenge against the 49ers as Charlotte knocked off Carolina in Charlotte earlier in the season. The Gamecocks have announced that reliever Cade Austin will start the game in Columbia, but recent mid-week games have been “bullpen games” in which the starter pitches just an inning or two before the bullpen takes over the mound duties. The Gamecocks will be looking to wake up their seemingly-sleepy bats that only scored five runs against Arkansas.
When the Tennessee series begins on Thursday, the pitching rotation will be a major storyline. Will Sanders did not pitch against the Hogs, and he was described as having a “lower body injury,” but many fans have speculated that the “injury” was a ruptured success gland and that Sanders was removed from his role in the starting rotation due to his ongoing struggles.
Eli Jones pitched the first game instead, and he performed very well with ten strikeouts and two earned runs over five innings, one of which was given up as an inherited run by the ‘pen. Expect Jones to start again.
Jack Mahoney had been scuffling a bit, as well, but he righted the ship against Arkansas with seven dominant innings of shutout ball in the Gamecocks’ lone win last weekend. Because of his bounce back to form, South Carolina baseball fans should expect to see Mahoney on the hill again this weekend, as well.
Sunday starter Matthew Becker was good but not great last weekend. He gave the Gamecocks a chance to win, but he allowed four runs in less than six innings of work. Becker could be in line to start again against Tennessee, but if any spot in the rotation sees a new pitcher starting the ballgame, Becker’s spot is the one most “up for grabs.” If Becker is not the man tabbed to start, Sanders, James Hicks, and a bullpen game are all potential options, as well.
Regardless of what the rotation looks like, with Cole Messina behind the plate again, the pitching should be better. With Messina playing 3rd base for a few weeks while Talmadge LeCroy was out with an injury, Carolina pitchers struggled without their usual backstop behind the dish. The pitchers could use the boost as Tennessee is one of the hottest teams in America right now.
The Vols have won three of their last four series in the SEC, including sweeps of Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. The Volunteer offense has been executing extremely well of late as they have scored less than four runs just twice since April 19th. Those two occurrences of low scoring output were also two of Tennessee’s three losses during that span. If Carolina hopes to win the series this weekend, they will have to keep the Vol’s offense in check.
South Carolina’s offense struggled against Arkansas, and Tennessee pitches better than Arkansas. In fact, Tennessee’s pitching has been good all season. The team from Knoxville currently sits in 3rd place nationally in team ERA and is second in the country in WHIP. UT starter Chase Dollander is one of the SEC’s best strikeout artists, and the rest of the Tennessee staff has pitched well. The Gamecocks will need to limit the strikeouts that have plagued them in recent weeks.
The good news for the YardCocks is that Tennessee is a much worse team on the road this season than at home. The Volunteer’s road record is 2-11 this season, and the Gamecocks are 25-4 at home, so Carolina should have an advantage.
This series is a big one for South Carolina baseball. With a series win, the Gamecocks should expect to be a regional host (potentially a top-8 seed if they pull off a sweep over the Vols). However, the inverse is also true. If Carolina loses the three-gamer to the Volunteers, the Gamecocks might not host a regional at all, a huge disappointment after Mark Kingston’s team got off to an incredible start in 2023.
The mid-week contest against Charlotte will be played at 7:00 on Tuesday and will be broadcast on the SECNetwork+. Thursday’s series opener against Tennessee and Friday’s game 2 will also be at 7:00 on the SECNetwork+, and the Saturday finale will be at 2:00 on the SECNetwork.