Why South Carolina baseball will — and won't — win NCAA Tournament super regional vs Florida
COLUMBIA — After a perfect run through the Columbia Regional, South Carolina baseball takes on Florida in its first NCAA Tournament super regional since 2018.
The No. 15 seed Gamecocks (42-19) face the No. 2 seed Gators (48-15) in Gainesville for a best-of-three series beginning Friday (6 p.m., ESPN2). Game 2 will be Saturday (3 p.m., ESPN2) with an if-necessary game Sunday. The winner advances to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
South Carolina is 54-51 all-time against Florida, but they are 16-29 when playing in Gainesville. The Gamecocks swept their 2023 regular-season series against the Gators at Founder's Park, but Florida won the series 2-1 in 2022 and ended South Carolina's season with a 2-1 win in the SEC Tournament.
Here's why the Gamecocks can — and can't — reach their first College World Series since 2012:
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Regular-season series bodes well
South Carolina's three-game sweep of Florida in April remains the best win on its resume. Ace Will Sanders threw a season-high 10 strikeouts in Game 1 to lead the Gamecocks to a 13-3 win, and they went on to beat the Gators 5-2 in Game 2 and 7-5 in Game 3. Florida ace Hurston Waldrep gave up two home runs, just one of three times he did so all season, and star South Carolina freshman Ethan Petry hit homers in two of the games.
The Gators boast two of the top hitters in the country in Wyatt Langford and Jac Caglianone, but the Gamecocks managed to limit both in the first meeting. Langford has the second-best batting average in the SEC at .387 but went just 2-11 against South Carolina. Caglianone, the No. 1 home run hitter in the nation, sent one out of the park in the series but also struck out five times in 11 at-bats.
Longer series favors South Carolina
The ideal scenario for South Carolina is a two-game sweep, but that's unlikely due to the teams' familiarity with each other and the Gators' talent level. However, going to the if-necessary game makes the Gamecocks' extra rest a significant advantage: South Carolina made it through the Columbia Regional playing just three games, while the Gators had to play five with just a three-day turnaround from their final game Monday to the start of the super regional.
Florida's top three pitchers — Waldrep, Caglianone and Brandon Sproat — all threw more than 90 pitches in their regional starts, with Waldrep surpassing 100. South Carolina's Jack Mahoney threw the most of the team's starters with 81 pitches, while James Hicks logged 62 and Matthew Becker tossed just 54. The Gamecocks also have Sanders in their back pocket after using him for 47 pitches in four innings of relief.
Gamecocks fare worse on the road
South Carolina has not won a series in Gainesville since 2011, when it went on to win the College World Series, and the Gamecocks have been swept twice there in the last decade. South Carolina is 1-5 all time in a road super regional but has a 5-2 record when playing at home.
The Gamecocks have struggled outside of Founder's Park with a 10-10 record on the road compared to a 32-9 record at home. South Carolina dropped just two home series to Auburn and Tennessee, but it suffered the only sweep of the season at Kentucky and also fell to Vanderbilt and Arkansas on the road. Despite winning their series with rival Clemson 2-1, the lone game the Gamecocks lost was at Clemson.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Why South Carolina baseball will — and won't — win NCAA super regional
