Gamecocks ride latest win streak into Athens for SEC series with border rival Georgia

The challenge for South Carolina’s baseball team is a relatively simple one: Keep it going.

Mark Kingston’s No. 14 Gamecocks managed to pull out of a light tailspin in the middle of a gauntlet. They’ve won six in a row after losing six in a row, going 4-5 against top-10 opposition in a stretch that also included a mid-week loss.

The schedule, theoretically, is going to get easier with a trip to face a Georgia team that isn’t quite at the level of recent opponents Vanderbilt (No. 1 in the D1 Baseball poll) or Florida (No. 15). But South Carolina’s coach thinks there’s little chance of a “foot-off-the-gas” moment.

“Georgia is Georgia,” Mark Kingston said after Tuesday’s win against Gardner-Webb. “That’s a great program. It’s run very well by their coaches. That’s a team that has been very good for a long time. There’s no foot off the gas in the SEC.

“Every weekend is a tremendous challenge and we will give it the respect it deserves.”

The Bulldogs are 17-7 and coming off a win against Clemson. They started the SEC season with series losses to Tennessee and Texas A&M.

UGA is led by its pitching staff, which ranks fourth in the SEC in ERA. Ace Luke Wagner is sitting on a 2.95 ERA despite rough starts the past two weekends, and Saturday starter Ryan Webb has a sterling 1.59 ERA with 34 strikeouts in 22 2/3 innings.

The Bulldogs have gone to each of the past two NCAA tournaments that were played and hosted a regional in 2019 after going 46-17.

South Carolina is trying to get back to NCAA tournament — maybe even in hosting form — and the current hot streak has been powered by a coming together on offense and defense. But more than that, something else has helped settle this team.

“If you look in the dugout and the bullpen, especially pregame, we’re having a blast right now,” pitcher Jack Mahoney said. “These guys love each other.

“After that Davidson loss, and going to Vandy and kind of getting our butts kicked a little bit, we weren’t having that much fun. We were really tight.”

Across a Sunday win in Nashville, mid-week win and then a dramatic 14-inning affair against the Gators, South Carolina seems to have solved that.

The pitching staff is showing off some strength, but the lineup seems to have things more in order. After averaging two runs a game during the losing streak, they’ve averaged 7.3, getting six or more runs four times.

On Tuesday, the Gamecocks even got a contribution from an unlikely source: No. 9 hitter George Callil. The top defensive shortstop had been scuffling at the plate, hitting .205 coming into Tuesday.

But he launched his first home run of the season, a moment providing enough uplift that most of the team came out to greet him at home.

“We had a few slow weeks,” Callil said, “maybe Texas and Vanderbilt where things didn’t quite go our way. But our players, our coaching staff, we haven’t strayed from what we do best. That talent is going to continue to show.”

South Carolina baseball schedule

Who: South Carolina (17-6, 4-2 SEC) at Georgia (17-7, 2-4 SEC)

Where: Foley Field in Athens

When: 6 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday

Watch: All three games will be streamed on SEC Network Plus