South Carolina Baseball: Gamecocks win mid-week rivalry in preparation for Florida

The scuffling South Carolina baseball team rebounded a bit from a bad stretch of baseball with a win over the North Carolina Tar Heels in Charlotte on Tuesday. The win was the Gamecocks' 2nd in a row (the first time they could say that in two weeks), and it came against a ranked UNC team at a neutral site.

The Gamecock offense wasn't great as they struck out an ugly 16 times in the game (compared to just 3 walks), but the pitching staff was excellent as they held the Tar Heels to just 1 run on 6 hits for the game.

Dylan Eskew, a former weekend starter, got the nod on the bump and battled through some struggles with his command to keep UNC scoreless over 3 1/3 innings. Roman Kimball entered the game in relief and was dominant, striking out 5 in 2 2/3 innings. Freshman Parker Marlatt gave up the only run before Connor McCreary came in for a 2 1/3-inning door-slamming that netted him the win.

The USC bats went 4-20 with runners on base, including 12 strikeouts. Thankfully for Mark Kingston's team, after a couple of singles, some pitching and defensive miscues by North Carolina allowed the Gamecocks to plate a run in the 3rd inning. Dylan Brewer played the role of offensive hero with an RBI double in the 8th that scored Talmadge LeCroy, the run that proved to be the game-winner.

For the game, Ethan Petry and Dylan Brewer each reached base 3 times (well, Brewer reached twice as he was thrown out going for 3rd on his game-winning double). Will Tippett's struggles continued as he fanned three times in four at-bats.

Next up for South Carolina baseball is a trip down to Gainesville, Florida to take on the Gators. Florida's season has been disappointing to this point as they have lost 9 games in out-of-conference play and hold just a .500 record in SEC play.

Florida pitching has been downright abysmal this season as every arm on the roster other than 2-way star Jac Caglianone (and Reilly Witmer who has only thrown 2 1/3 innings this year) has an ERA above 4.30. UF's staff has the worst collective ERA in the SEC at over 6.33.

Like the Gamecocks, the Gators' offense hasn't been good enough, either. Outside of Caglianone, the lineup strikes out at alarming rates (again, just like the Gamecocks), and they have the second-fewest walks and second-worst on-base percentage in the league.

Mark Kingston has revealed the Carolina rotation for the weekend, and Eli Jones (Friday), Ty Good (Saturday), and Matthew Becker (Sunday) will handle the starting duties. Becker had a good first start of the year last Sunday, and Good has been excellent in relief against SEC competition. Freshman Tyler Pitzer likely will be used for any long relief duties.

Catcher Cole Messina (concussion) was unavailable in the mid-week after a concussion, but his status for the weekend series against Florida has not been revealed. This week, Mark Kingston said that he hopes Messina will be ready to go in Gainesville.

Game 1 against Florida will be on Friday at 6:30 and will be broadcast on the SEC Network+. Saturday's game 2 will begin at 4:00 and also will be shown on the SEC Network+. The series finale on Sunday will start at 12:00 and will be on the SEC Network.