Gamecocks hit the road to face yet another ‘very dangerous’ lineup
When senior pitcher Brannon Jordan trots to the mound for his start Saturday, he’ll face an environment unlike any he has seen with South Carolina baseball — or ever.
That’ll be the case for nearly every Gamecock on the roster this weekend when No. 13 USC visits No. 19 Ole Miss. The Rebels’ home park, Swayze Field, has long been known as one of the best atmospheres in college baseball. And while South Carolina and other programs continue to limit crowd capacity at home games this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ole Miss has lifted all restrictions.
In its last two home SEC weekends, Ole Miss has averaged more than 11,000 fans in attendance. South Carolina hasn’t played in front of that many people since the 2018 NCAA Super Regional, and only three players remain on the roster from that trip, none of them in the starting lineup or rotation.
“I mean, the biggest crowd that I’ve seen was last weekend maybe, against Arkansas,” Jordan said. “So that was really cool. But yeah, it’ll be really exciting. The atmosphere is fun. Obviously, it’ll be pretty hectic, but you can’t really be too high or too low with those fans yelling or being quiet. You just kind of got to ride the wave and compete.”
During that Arkansas series, the Gamecocks let in 3,350 fans into Founders Park. Facing more than three times that on the road is one task. Doing it in a hitter-friendly park against one of the SEC’s more prolific offenses is another.
“They’re built for their ballpark,” USC coach Mark Kingston said. “It’s a very offensive ballpark, especially when the wind blows out. And so they’ve hit a lot of homers, and they’re a very dangerous offense.”
The Rebels are in the top 25 nationally in batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage and scoring. But they’ll be running up against a South Carolina pitching staff that ranks in the top 25 itself in ERA, strikeouts per nine innings and Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched (WHIP). After seeing how his pitchers handled Arkansas this past weekend, doing a solid job holding one of the nation’s top lineups in check, Kingston sounded confident in their ability to do so again against Ole Miss.
“Our pitching has been pretty darn consistent the whole year, so if we can get our offense performing at its peak level, I think we got a really good team,” Kingston said.
Potentially impacting both the pitching and the hitting is the status of sophomore catcher Colin Burgess. The Gamecocks’ usual starting backstop is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, Kingston said, which could force him to shuffle the lineup like he did in the midweek contest against The Citadel. Because of Burgess’ absence, junior Wes Clarke moved from designated hitter to catcher, junior Josiah Sightler moved from left field to DH and senior Noah Myers came off the bench and into the outfield.
But even if Burgess is able to play, Kingston said he wants to see more consistency out of his batters.
“We’ve had a couple days to get after it offensively, and it just has to get better. We know it has to get better,” Kingston said. “It has to get better with a lot of individual guys, and it has to get better as a group. And I think it will. We got after it pretty good this week offensively in our practices.”
The Gamecocks will face a significant challenge in Game 1 — Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco confirmed Thursday that ace Gunnar Hoglund will return to the mound after missing his start last series. Hoglund is one of the top arms in the country and a projected top-15 pick overall in the MLB Draft. In nine starts this season, he has a 2.73 ERA and a .183 batting average against.
Series openers have been a constant struggle for South Carolina in SEC play — the Gamecocks are 1-5 in such games, with the lone victory coming in 14 innings against Florida.
NEXT USC BASEBALL SERIES
Who: No. 13 South Carolina (26-12, 11-7 SEC) vs. No. 19 Ole Miss (28-12, 10-8)
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday, 12:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Sawyze Field, Oxford, Mississippi
Watch: Streaming online on SEC Network Plus via WatchESPN on Friday and Sunday, SEC Network on Saturday
