Series Primer: South Carolina at Kentucky
Mark Kingston and South Carolina's baseball team is nearing the home stretch of the season, a stretch that'll see them play the likes of Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee, three teams who are likely to host a regional in the postseason. The first challenger among this group will be the Kentucky Wildcats, a team that's much improved from last season and has been competitive with some of the best teams in the conference so far this year.
The Wildcats have a clear identity when it comes to their offense, and that's using small-ball tactics to manufacture runs, which often involves trying to move base runners through stringing together hits, stealing bases, and sacrificing runners over through a bunt or deep fly ball. This is strongly evidenced by the fact that Kentucky has only hit 28 homers as a team this season. To put that into context, Ethan Petry has hit 21 homeruns by himself in 44 games. South Carolina's pitching will need make sure that they attack the strikezone and essentially dare the Wildcats hitters to earn their runs through their own accord, not by taking advantage of Gamecock mistakes.
On the flip side of the coin, the Wildcats pitching staff is decent in terms of their starting pitching, with all three possessing an ERA of 4.82 or lower in at least 46 and two-third innings pitched this season. As an entire staff, however, Kentucky's arms possess a collective strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.01, a number that's not exactly great in baseball terms.
The Gamecocks have proven at multiple points throughout the season that they can draw walks in bunches through their grind-it-out approach at the plate, and with the amount of injuries that have piled up in South Carolina's infield in recent weeks, this trend will have to continue in Lexington. South Carolina's hitting lineup will also need to do a better job of taking advantage of having multiple runners on base, as more than 30 baserunners were left on in this past weekend's series loss to the Auburn Tigers.
How To Watch: South Carolina at Kentucky
- Gamedays: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, May 5th-7th, 2023.
- Game time: 6:30 pm EDT for Game 1, 2:00 pm EDT for Game 2, and 2:00 pm EDT for Game 3.
- TV: SEC Network+ for Games 1 and 2, and SEC Network for Game 3.
- Stadium: Kentucky Proud Park (Lexington, KY)
- Live stream on fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!
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