Baseball . May 15, 2024

Baseball Closes Regular Season at Tennessee

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FOR STARTERS

South Carolina closes out regular season play this Thursday-Saturday with a three-game series at No. 1 Tennessee.
Thursday and Friday’s games start at 6:30 p.m., with Saturday’s game at 1 p.m.
All three games are on SEC Network Plus.
All three games also will be on the Gamecock Sports Network presented by Learfield with Derek Scott and Stuart Lake on the call.

SCOUTING TENNESSEE

Tennessee is coming off a 10-0, 7-inning win over Belmont on Tuesday night. Hunter Ensley and Colby Backus combined for five RBI on the night while Christian Moore hit his 24th home run of the season.
Moore leads the Volunteers with a .377 batting average while Blake Burke has a .368 average with 22 doubles and 15 home runs.
Drew Beam has seven wins on the mound and 67 strikeouts in 74.1 innings pitched.
Tennessee is a game back of Kentucky in the SEC East standings heading into the final week of conference play. Kentucky hosts Vanderbilt starting Thursday night.
Tony Vitello is in his seventh season as the head coach at Tennessee. He has led UT to a pair of College World Series appearances and was the 2022 National Coach of the Year by Perfect Game.

SERIES VS. TENNESSEE

Carolina leads the all-time series with Tennessee, 67-45, heading into this weekend.
The Gamecocks are 24-25 all-time in games in Knoxville.
Carolina won the middle game of last year’s series in Columbia, 6-1, as Braylen Wimmer homered and Talmadge LeCroy drove in a pair of runs.

WHERE WE STAND

Carolina is currently in fourth place in the SEC East with a 13-14 SEC record. Overall, Carolina is in seventh in the SEC standings with three games to play.
Carolina has a No. 19 RPI and a No. 10 strength of schedule as of May 13. That is the eighth best RPI in the SEC.
The Gamecocks have nine wins and 24 overall Quad 1 games with their next three contests against Q1 team Tennessee.
Carolina has played or will play the top five teams in the SEC (Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas A&M and Georgia). Carolina also will play the top-seven RPI teams, the five aforementioned teams plus Clemson and North Carolina.

MESSINA NAMED SEC PLAYER OF THE WEEK (MAY 6)

Cole Messina was named the SEC Player of the Week on May 6.
Messina had a red-hot week, going 9-for-14 with seven runs scored, two doubles, a triple, three home runs, two stolen bases and 10 RBI in four games. Messina also walked three times for a .722 on-base percentage.
He had five RBI in Friday night’s 10-2 win and was 2-for-3 with three RBI in the East Tennessee State win. Messina ended the weekend with a 3-for-5 game with a double and a home run in the come-from-behind 9-4 victory.
This is Messina’s first SEC Player of the Week honor. It is also the first for the Gamecocks since Ethan Petry earned the award on April 10, 2023.

G-SQUARED

Garrett Gainey started for the first time this season for the Gamecocks May 11 against Georgia. He struck out seven and allowed five hits and two earned runs in 5.1 innings in a no-decision.
Gainey has a 3.05 ERA in 20 appearances to go along with six saves and 56 strikeouts compared to just six walks.
For the third straight outing, Ty Good struck out seven batters, this time in four innings in relief May 9 against Georgia.
Good is now 5-1 on the year with a 3.21 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 47.2 innings.
Good leads the SEC with career strikeouts with 337. Hagen Smith of Arkansas is second with 335 strikeouts, followed by Mason Molina of Arkansas with 251.
Good also has an SEC best 30 career wins and 294.2 innings pitched.

PROBABLE PITCHING ROTATION
Thursday
South Carolina Ty Good (5th RHP) 5-1, 3.21 ERA, 47.2 IP, 21 BB, 63 SO
Tennessee Chris Stamos (Gr. LHP) 3-0, 3.33 ERA, 24.1 IP, 12 BB, 27 SO

Friday
South Carolina TBA
Tennessee Drew Beam (Jr. RHP) 7-2, 3.75 ERA, 74.1 IP, 17 BB, 67 SO

Saturday
South Carolina TBA
Tennessee Zander Sechrist (Sr. LHP) 1-1, 4.57 ERA, 43.1 IP, 10 BB, 48 SO

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