South Carolina’s bats have had some short disappearing acts this season but nothing like what happened in Arkansas over the weekend. The Gamecocks managed only 3 runs in 3 games. Luckily that was good enough to win one of the games and avoid the sweep, but there wasn’t much more positive to take away.
If you’re the panic-y type of fan, this would be a good time to start panicking. USC has lost its two road series thus far, and barring some miraculous comebacks would be doing a lot worse than 7-5 in conference.
The Gamecock formula for winning championships has been pitching and defense with just enough timely hitting thrown in. Earlier this season that was working; over the weekend it fell flat. The timely hitting never came, and the problem was exacerbated by bad defense.
As it stands now Carolina is tied for first in the East at 7-5, and their national ranking remains high, but they are going to have to start winning some games on the road if they want a national seed. At home this weekend, they need to find a way to hit the ball against Florida’s strong, strong pitching staff.
Taking a long view, Carolina doesn’t need to win as many games in conference as it usually does. Currently USC is undefeated outside of conference. If that holds true and they win 18-20 conference games, the committee would be hard pressed to deny a 44-12 (18-12) or 46-10 (20-10) SEC team a national seed, especially with the RPI this team would have.
So, that’s where we go from here: find some offense and win some road games. Keep winning the midweek games and about 11-13 more conference games.
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