Baseball Ends Regular Season This Weekend at Vanderbilt

FOR STARTERS

• Carolina closes out the regular season in Nashville this weekend, facing Vanderbilt in a three-game SEC series at Hawkins Field.
• Thursday and Friday’s games will start at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) with Saturday’s game starting at 2 p.m. ET (1 p.m. CT).
• All three games will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.
• All three games also will be broadcast on the Gamecock Sports Network presented by Learfield with Derek Scott and Cade Crenshaw on the call.

PROBABLE PITCHING ROTATION
Thursday
South Carolina Amp Phillips (Jr. RHP) 3-7, 3.93 ERA, 66.1 IP, 34 BB, 69 SO
Vanderbilt Connor Fennell (Jr. RHP) 3-2, 5.09 ERA, 74.1 IP, 18 BB, 90 SO

Friday
South Carolina Alex Valentin (Jr. LHP) 1-4, 4.98 ERA, 47.0 IP, 21 BB, 55 SO
Vanderbilt Tyler Baird (Fr. RHP) 0-5, 4.81 ERA, 39.1 IP, 22 BB, 48 SO

Saturday
South Carolina TBA
Vanderbilt TBA

SCOUTING VANDERBILT

• The Commodores took the middle game of the three-game set at Missouri, 11-8 in 11 innings as Logan Johnstone drove in four runs in the win.
• Braden Holcomb leads Vanderbilt with a .348 batting average while Mike Mancini has a team best 15 home runs.
• On the mound, Connor Fennell has a 3-2 record with 90 strikeouts in 74.1 innings pitched.
• Tim Corbin is in his 24th season as head coach at Vanderbilt. He guided the Commodores to national championships in 2014 and 2019. 

SERIES VS. VANDERBILT

• Carolina holds a 65-41 all-time series advantage on Vanderbilt heading into Thursday’s game.
• The Gamecocks last faced Vanderbilt in 2024, sweeping the Commodores at Founders Park.
• Ethan Petry drove in a pair of runs in the 10-2 win in the series finale.
• The two teams last played in Nashville in 2023, with Vanderbilt winning 2-of-3 games.
• Cole Messina hit two home runs in the series opener, a 14-6 Carolina win.
• Carolina is 31-17 all-time vs. Vanderbilt in Nashville.

GAMECOCKS GEAR UP FOR SEC TOURNAMENT

• Carolina is getting ready for next week’s SEC Tournament, held May 19-24 at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Ala.
• Carolina enters the final weekend of the regular season as the 15th seed, leading Missouri by one game and holds the tiebreaker with the Tigers for that slot.
• The 15 seed will play on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. CT).
• With three games remaining, Carolina currently is projected to face 10 seed Oklahoma on Tuesday.
• Oklahoma currently is tied with Tennessee for the 10th seed. Those two teams play each other this weekend in Oklahoma City.

UP NEXT

• Carolina will open play in the SEC Tournament on Tuesday, May 19 in Hoover, Ala.
• That game will be televised on SEC Network.