 "Photo: Alan Tauber / The Daily Gamecock")
The Gamecock baseball team is heading to Gainesville, Fla., this weekend to play against the No. 23 Florida Gators (28-14, 10-8 SEC). A win in the series against Florida would put Carolina (27-15, 9-9 SEC) into second in the SEC East.
"This is a critical series for us," junior third baseman Nick Ebert said. "Florida's a good ball club and we're good. I feel like if we play our game and pitch what our pitching's coming around for, it's going really well. Put two and two together and we'll be fine. They're beatable. Hopefully we'll come home with another win."
The Gamecocks are coming off a devastating Wednesday loss to Clemson. The first five innings saw no score until the sixth inning in which Clemson scored five runs for a commanding lead. Despite the loss, junior outfielder DeAngelo Mack won the Tom Price MVP award for the series against Clemson. Mack brought the only two points for the Gamecocks in a RBI double to right center.
"We'll definitely flush it out," Mack said. "We'll be fine when we go on the field tomorrow. One of those loses you just get out of your head as soon as possible."
The Florida team is just coming off a close win against in-state rival University of Southern Florida. They won in the 10th inning after a walk-off single from Florida junior infielder Mike Mooney. Out of Florida's 28 victories, 17 were comebacks. This will be an interesting match up against the Gamecocks who have outscored their opponents in the first two innings 102-35.
"I think we're just playing much better as a team against clutch hits," sophomore center fielder Whit Merrifield said. "Our pitching has been really good lately. The pitching staff is really solid and they're gonna be good for us all year. Our bats have been a little streaky, but we're starting to find our groove at the plate. We're just playing really good as a team. We're a really good team, we just want to go out there and prove it."
The Gamecock pitching staff has been a vital element in the past two series win against SEC opponents. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Sam Dyson had eight strikeouts in his game against the Auburn Tigers. He's got a 4.75 ERA and has compiled 54 strikeouts in 57 innings. He is expected to start the Gamecocks off Friday. Florida is expected to use freshman right hand pitch Anthony DeSclafani, 2.75 ERA or senior left hander Stephen Locke, 3.24 ERA.
"If we win this series it puts us in a good spot," Merrifield said. "If we don't win it puts us in an uphill battle. That's something that's gonna be hard to do in the end of the year. I think we're gonna get hot and we're gonna peak at the right time this year. We're gonna make a good run down the stretch."
The series begins Friday at 6:30 p.m. at McKethan Stadium, Saturday will begin at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
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