Can South Carolina turn upset of No. 3 NC State into SEC momentum? ‘You sure hope so’
After a thrilling 10-8 walk-off win over No. 3 NC State, South Carolina baseball is hitting the road, heading to Tuscaloosa to face Alabama in what could be a pivotal SEC series for the Gamecocks.
Following losing its first three conference series for the first time since 1992, USC (18-11, 2-7 SEC) has dropped out of midseason projections of the NCAA tournament and is facing an uphill climb against a league that features nine of the top 25 teams in the country.
Alabama is not one of those nine — the Crimson Tide are tied with the Gamecocks for second-to-last place in the conference at the moment and hasn’t made the NCAA tourney in the past four years.
That makes this weekend’s series all the more crucial for Carolina: Taking the series would give coach Mark Kingston’s club valuable wins ahead of more challenging opponents such as Florida and Texas A&M, while losing it might set up the Gamecocks to be in real danger of missing the SEC tournament.
Speaking after Tuesday’s win in Charlotte, Kingston seemed well aware of the stakes, despite it still being relatively early in the conference schedule.
“We’re trying to make up ground,” Kingston said. “We’re not out of it by any stretch, by any stretch of the imagination. There’s a lot of teams down there that are kinda in our same spot and there could be 10 to 11 teams that make the NCAAs from our conference, so we gotta continue to battle and find a way to get into that top 10 or 11, if not better.”
South Carolina needed a second-half surge to make the field and advance to the Super Regionals last season, and that started with a sweep of No. 19 LSU. Taking down NC State, a national title contender, might be another crucial moment, senior right fielder Jacob Olson said.
“Last year we kinda went through the same thing, got a win like this, swept LSU, and it just keeps building off of it, so hopefully this is it,” he said.
Kingston cautioned, however, against assuming that one win would automatically build on itself, especially as South Carolina continues to find its way with an injury-depleted pitching staff.
“Baseball’s a game of momentum. Usually your momentum is your next pitcher, so (freshman) Danny Lloyd needs to do a nice job for us on Thursday. But it shows this team that we are making progress and if we commit to the things we’re working on, we can combine power and good at-bats, because we did both (against NC State).”
SERIES INFO
Who: South Carolina (18-11, 2-7 SEC) vs. Alabama (20-10, 2-7 SEC)
When: 7 p.m., Thursday
7 p.m., Friday
2 p.m., Saturday
Where: Sewell-Thomas Stadium, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
TV: SEC Network on Thursday and Friday
Streaming on SEC Network Plus via WatchESPN on Saturday
Radio: 107.5 FM in Columbia area
Probable starters (Thursday): USC — Fr. RHP Daniel Lloyd (2-2, 4.72 ERA); Bama — Sr. RHP Sam Finnerty (4-3, 3.92 ERA)
Probable starters (Friday): USC — Jr. RHP Reid Morgan (3-0, 2.17 ERA); Bama — Jr. RHP Brock Love (3-1, 4.10 ERA)
Probable starters (Saturday): USC — TBA; Bama — Fr. RHP Tyler Ras (1-2, 3.22 ERA)
Injury report: Senior pitcher Ridge Chapman (forearm strain) remains sidelined indefinitely. Sophomore pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski (broken foot) is likely out until at least May. Junior pitcher Hayden Lehman (tightness) is day-to-day. Sophomore outfielder Andrew Eyster (knee) can hit but remains limited on defense and on the basepaths.
This story was originally published April 3, 2019 at 2:28 PM with the headline "Can South Carolina turn upset of No. 3 NC State into SEC momentum? ‘You sure hope so’."
