Baseball notebook: USC seeks to solve road woes

USC baseball coach Chad Holbrook sees one line on the stat sheet that drives him crazy. It’s the team’s record on the road – 3-10.

The Gamecocks have struggled away from Carolina Stadium this season, both in the SEC (2-7) and out of conference (1-3).

“It’s disappointing. I don’t know another way to say,” Holbrook said. “Do I know exactly why? One, we’ve played a couple of really good teams on the road, and they beat us. Two, we didn’t play as well as we’d have liked. You’ve got to be tough, and you’ve got to be mean, and you’ve got to play great baseball to win on the road in this league.”

USC has lost four consecutive road games, including a sweep at the hands of a Florida team that won by a combined score of 38-10.

Back at the top Junior left-hander Jack Wynkoop will front the weekend rotation again with sophomore right-hander Wil Crowe sidelined for the season with an elbow injury.

Wynkoop, who began the season in that role before moving to the No. 2 slot, is ready for the change. He’s not going to prepare much differently.

“Maybe I’ll read the scouting report a little bit more. I won’t be able to see their hitters a few times in the order (like he was doing in the first game),” Wynkoop said. “I’ll just go out there and try to set the tone, let my defense work and put us in a position to win.”

Junior left-hander Vince Fiori, who pitched well in his first start last week against Vanderbilt after 52 career relief appearances, will start Saturday’s game against Tennessee. He leads the regulars with a 2.30 ERA.

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 9:09 PM with the headline "Baseball notebook: USC seeks to solve road woes."