South Carolina scores much-needed SEC sweep over Alabama
South Carolina’s postseason hopes might not be totally lost.
After falling out of D1Baseball’s NCAA Field of 64 projection following a sweep last weekend by Auburn, the Gamecocks tallied their own first Southeastern Conference sweep of the season Saturday. USC defeated Alabama 11-5 at Founders Park in the third game of their weekend series.
South Carolina (22-20, 9-12 SEC) has 12 regular-season games left to prove itself in 2022, including two more conference road series at Texas A&M and Florida and a final homestand against Kentucky. Both the Gators and Wildcats carried worse SEC records into this weekend, giving the Gamecocks an realistic path to finish conference play over .500.
USC head coach Mark Kingston said after Saturday’s game that he’s started to mention “checkpoints,” such as the .500 mark in conference play or reaching 12 wins in the SEC, to help guide South Carolina to its postseason goal.
“They know if you can get enough wins in our league, you can generally get in the NCAA tournament,” Kingston said. “The best teams in the country play here, and if you can hold your own in our league, you deserve to go to the NCAA tournament.”
It’s not that the Alabama series completely erased the Gamecocks’ struggles, including this season’s midweek losses to Xavier, Presbyterian and The Citadel. But with its sweep of the Crimson Tide (25-20, 9-12 SEC), USC might have found a spark to carry through.
Kingston admitted after the series that South Carolina needed to sweep the Alabama series “in the worst way.”
“Our guys really stepped up all weekend in a lot of different areas,” Kingston said. “At the end of the day, we swept an SEC series, and those are really hard to get.”
Veteran Andrew Eyster tallied a career-high six RBIs, scoring two off a single in the first inning and two off his second home run of the weekend in the third.
The Gamecocks had a solid offensive showing overall Saturday. All nine batters in South Carolina’s lineup reached base twice, led by veterans Kevin Madden and Eyster at the top of the order. Madden’s three hits tied Eyster for the most of the day, and the Gamecocks tallied 14 total hits on the afternoon.
Eyster, who had a career-best day Saturday, said weekend afternoon games are his favorite to play.
“Everyone loves Friday nights under the lights, but I love these game three of the series, where we’re either playing for the series win or playing for, in this case, a sweep,” Eyster said. “We just play better during the day, honestly.”
Right-handed pitcher Will Sanders grew steady on the mound in his sixth win and 11th start of the year. After allowing two runs on three hits in the first, Sanders settled in and stifled the Crimson Tide’s offense for four innings Saturday, retiring nine consecutive batters in order through the third, fourth and fifth.
Sanders gave up three additional hits before his day was done, including a three-run home run to Alabama’s Dominic Tamez in the sixth. He pitched seven innings with seven hits, five runs, eight strikeouts and two walks.
“For the most part, I think Will was just very workman-like today,” Kingston said. “I think that’s a very solid outing for him. I know he always wants to do better and always expects more out of himself. But at the end of the day, we scored a lot of runs, and he pitched well enough. He gave us seven innings, which is exactly what we needed.”
The Gamecocks seek to carry their upward swing from this weekend into a midweek contest against North Carolina A&T at home before traveling to Texas A&M next weekend.
Next USC baseball game
Who: South Carolina vs. North Carolina A&T
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Founders Park in Columbia
Watch: SEC Network
This story was originally published April 30, 2022 at 3:07 PM.
