Series Primer: Tennessee @ South Carolina

South Carolina's Baseball team is set for their regular season finale as they take on the No. 18 ranked Tennessee Volunteers.

Over the past six weeks, Mark Kingston and South Carolina's Baseball team have quickly gone from being a surefire lock to be a Top 8 national seed, which would have given the Gamecocks home-field advantage in the NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals, to now fighting to secure a national seed period. While the Gamecocks have a strong RPI and strength of schedule working in their favor, their case will lose some luster if they drop their fourth straight SEC series and fifth out of their last six.

History tells us two things; One, selection committees typically have opinions altered by recency bias and inconsistently account for the entire body of work of a team, and two, the Gamecocks and the city of Hoover, AL, where the SEC Baseball Tournament takes place annually, don't quite get along well together. This upcoming series against the Tennessee Volunteers is truly a must-win for South Carolina.

Tennessee's pitching staff has seven arms who have pitched nine innings or more in conference play, and this group has compiled a 4.54 ERA and 3.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio. This same group has given up 38 homers, 48 doubles, and five triples in 27 SEC contests. These statistics signal that Tennessee's pitching staff tries to overpower their opponent and pound the strike zone, creating boom-or-bust scenarios where the batter strikes out or gets a big hit. South Carolina's batting lineup has struggled in recent weeks to drive the ball and will need to improve that this weekend to find success.

Tennessee's bats, minus the injured Jared Dickey, have hit 38 homers in 27 games and compiled a 1.74 strikeout-to-walk ratio, only registering 16 stolen base attempts. In contrast, opponents have attempted, on average, 53 stolen base attempts in conference play. This stat line conveys that the Volunteers are a more tame and effective Gorrila-ball team who can draw their walks and hit for power. The Gamecocks' battered pitching staff will need to unite and keep the team afloat in the early parts of these ballgames.

How To Watch: Tennessee at South Carolina

• Gamedays: Friday and Saturday, May 19th-20th, 2023.
• Game time: 7:00 pm EDT for Game 1 and 2:00 pm EDT for Game 2. *Game 3 will begin one hour after the completion of Game 2*
• TV: SEC Network+ for Games 1, and SEC Network for Games 2 and 3.
• Stadium: Founders Park (Columbia, SC)
• Live stream on fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!

You Might Also Like:

• Gamecocks Extend Losing Streak to Five, Drop Game One To Arkansas
• Takeaways From The Gamecocks' Midweek Loss To North Florida
• Gamecocks In Search Of Answers After Being Swept By Kentucky

Join the community:

• Follow Andrew Lyon on Twitter: @ALyon_SC
• Follow Christian Dart on Twitter: @ChristianJDart
• Follow Fisher Brewer on Twitter: @USCTalk
• Follow Arvon Bacon on Twitter: @baconnetworkllc
• Follow Locked On Gamecocks on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts

You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the top right-hand corner of the page. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook @GamecocksDigest & follow us on Twitter at @GamecocksDigest.