May 17, 2009

Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina went 5-0 on the week with a doubleheader victory vs. USC Upstate and a series sweep of Georgia to close out the regular season. South Carolina is now 37-19 overall and 17-13 in the SEC. Carolina finishes second in the SEC Eastern Division and will be the fifth seed at the SEC Tournament beginning on Wednesday. Carolina is set to face fourth seed Alabama at 9:30 p.m. ET … This is the Gamecocks’ 13th straight season in the conference tournament, the longest current streak among the 12 SEC schools.

Record: 37-19
SEC: 17-13 (2nd in Eastern Division)
Home: 26-9
Away: 11-10

This Week: 5-0
5/12/09 – vs. USC Upstate – W, 6-3 (7 inn.)
5/12/09 – vs. USC Upstate – W, 9-2 (7 inn.)
5/14/09 – vs. Georgia – W, 7-2
5/15/09 – vs. Georgia – W, 7-4
5/16/09 – vs. Georgia – W, 6-1

NOTES:
South Carolina closed out the back stretch of the 2009 conference season winning five of its last six SEC series to finish 17-13 in conference play and second in the SEC Eastern Division … South Carolina also won eight of its last nine conference games played including sweeps of Vanderbilt and Georgia … The finish by Carolina was two spots higher than predicted in this year’s SEC Preseason Coaches Poll in which Carolina was predicted fourth … Carolina has finished in the upper half of the SEC Eastern Division 13 of 18 seasons since joining the league including 10 of 13 years under head coach Ray Tanner.

South Carolina’s pitching staff had its top weekend of the season finishing with a 2.00 ERA in 27 innings pitched … The staff allowed just seven runs, six earned on 16 hits and struck out 34 batters.

Sophomore right-hander Sam Dyson hurled his second career complete game and struck out a career-high 13 batters in the 7-2 series opener vs. Georgia … Dyson allowed just two runs on four hits to pick up the win and improve to 8-4 on the year … He has 81 strikeouts in 88 innings pitched … His innings pitched is fifth highest in the SEC with his 81 strikeouts, ninth highest in the league … Opponents are batting just .229 against him, also fifth best in the league.

Freshman left-hander Nolan Belcher also struck out a career-high 11 batters in the 7-4 win over the Bulldogs on Friday night … Belcher improved to 4-3 on the year with a 4.99 ERA … He has hurled 70.1 innings, opponents batting just .261 against him, 12th best in the conference … All four of his wins have come in conference play (Arkansas, at Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Georgia).

Junior right-hander Blake Cooper earned a win in a predetermined split in the 6-1 win over Georgia on Saturday … With the victory, Cooper improves to 8-4 and moves into the 20-win club at Carolina … He is now the 18th pitcher in school history to record 20 or more wins in the garnet and black … Cooper has a 4.61 ERA on the year in 70.1 innings.

Junior first baseman Nick Ebert had an impressive weekend series vs. Georgia … Ebert finished 5-for-8 (.625) with four HR and 10 RBI vs. the Bulldogs … His 10 RBI accounted for half of the runs that Carolina scored on the weekend … His two-homer game including a grand slam helped Carolina to a 7-2 win on Thursday … He also homered and drove in two runs on both Friday and Saturday in victories over the Bulldogs … Ebert is second in the league in slugging percentage (.777), on-base percentage (.488) and walks (47), tied for second in home runs (22) and fifth in RBI (70) … He his hitting .341 on the year as well … 12 of Ebert’s 22 HR have come in SEC contests with 38 RBI as well.

On the year, Carolina is hitting .307 (595-for-1935) with 97 HR as well as 402 RBI … Carolina is also second overall in the SEC in slugging percentage (.530), tied for third in home runs (97), fourth in runs scored (427) and second in doubles (117) … The team’s .307 average is fifth best in the SEC with its .297 average in conference games also seventh best in the league.

Junior outfielder DeAngelo Mack currently owns a 17-game hitting streak and leads the SEC in hits with 83 on the year … Mack is batting .374 for the season, third best in conference and has hit 14 HR with 56 RBI … Mack owns a .468 on-base percentage as well as a .640 slugging percentage … Mack has hit at a .336 clip in conference games … Mack leads the team with 26 multi-hit games … He also has 15 multi-RBI games.

Sophomore outfielder Whit Merrifield has a seven-game hitting streak and is hitting .335 (78-for-233) with 11 HR and 45 RBI … He is among SEC leaders with 62 runs scored … He has a .318 average in SEC games.

Freshman outfielder Jackie Bradley, Jr. is batting .338 (76-for-225) with nine HR and 41 RBI … Bradley is also hitting .328 in SEC games with six HR and 22 RBI in 30 conference games played.

Senior third baseman Andrew Crisp continues to climb the charts in South Carolina history … Crisp is currently batting .326 with 10 HR and 41 RBI and leads the SEC with 21 doubles … Crisp is fourth in school history in games played (231) five shy of Mac White (236) and is 10 hits shy of Landon Powell (265) and Derick Urquhart on the hits list.

The team is fielding .974 (1474 putouts, 550 assists, 55 errors) second best in the SEC … Carolina’s pitching staff is allowing just a .259 batting average by opponents, that is the lowest average in the SEC overall.

Carolina continues to be strong in the early innings, outscoring opponents 125-55 in the first two innings on the year … South Carolina is 35-4 in games when it out-hits the opponent … Carolina is also 37-10 when hitting at least one home run … South Carolina also owns a record of 29-2 when allowing five runs or less in a game

NEXT WEEK
SEC TOURNAMENT
#5 seed vs. #4 seed Alabama – May 20 – 9:30 pm ET