Baseball Opens SEC Tournament Play Tuesday vs. Georgia

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The University of South Carolina baseball team opens postseason play at the SEC Tournament at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Ala., on Tuesday morning (May 23) at 10:30 a.m. EDT (9:30 a.m. CDT). The Gamecocks are the sixth seed in the tournament and will face 11th-seeded Georgia in Tuesday’s single-elimination game.

Tuesday’s game will be televised on SEC Network with Dave Neal and Ben McDonald on the call. All games also will be broadcast on the Gamecocks Sports Network from Learfield with Derek Scott and Tommy Moody on the call.

The Gamecocks are coming off winning one of three games against Tennessee this past weekend. Jack Mahoney struck out nine and Carolina scored five runs in the sixth in the 6-1 win in game one on Saturday.

SCOUTING GEORGIA
The Bulldogs won the series finale against LSU to close out the regular season. Ben Anderson and Charlie Condon drove in two runs apiece in the win. Condon leads the Bulldogs with a .393 batting average and has 25 home runs, a new SEC freshman record. Connor Tate is hitting .384 with 19 doubles and 16 home runs.

SERIES VS. GEORGIA
Carolina leads the all-time series with Georgia 71-66 heading into Tuesday’s game. Carolina has faced Georgia four times in the SEC Tournament and has won once in the 2001 event by a 10-2 count. The last meeting between the two teams in the tournament was in 2011, a 4-2 Georgia win. The Gamecocks swept the Bulldogs in Athens in March, including a pair of seven-inning wins. Ethan Petry drove in seven runs in the three games.

PROBABLE PITCHING ROTATION
Tuesday
South Carolina James Hicks (R-Jr. RHP) 6-1, 4.09 ERA, 50.2 IP, 12 BB, 42 K
Georgia Jaden Woods (So. LHP) 3-2, 5.59 ERA, 46.2 IP, 25 BB, 61 K

SEC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Carolina is 29-51 all-time in SEC Tournament play. The Gamecocks won the event in 2004, winning four games, including a 3-2 win over Vanderbilt in the tournament final. Last season, Carolina lost to Florida, 2-1, in 10 innings in the opening round.

THE NUMBERS FOR THE GAMECOCKS
Carolina enters the SEC Tournament with the nation’s No. 6 RPI and No. 5 strength of schedule. The Gamecocks have the No. 8 non-conference RPI and is 19-14 against RPI Top-50 teams. Carolina has series wins over Florida (RPI 4) and Clemson (RPI 7) among its five Top-50 RPI series wins. The Gamecocks played the toughest SEC schedule as the opponents had a 157-142 conference record for a .525 winning percentage.

MAHONEY ENDS THE REGULAR SEASON ON A HIGH NOTE
In Carolina’s 6-1 win over Tennessee on May 20, Jack Mahoney tied a career high with nine strikeouts, going six innings and allowing just three hits and a run with no walks. Mahoney is now 6-2 on the year with a 3.73 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 70 innings pitched.