This past week in the state saw somewhat of a shake up among the top teams. Coastal Carolina was coasting through the Big South conference schedule, but dropped 2 of 3 at High Point this weekend. They maintain a half game lead over Liberty in the Big South conference.
College of Charleston swept Furman this week at home. They used a 5 run bottom of the 9th Sunday to complete the sweep in dramatic fashion. They still trail Elon and Georgia Southern in the SoCon standings.
Clemson won its series against Wake Forest, continuing their 'sister of the poor' portion of the ACC schedule. They are 7-2 against Maryland, BC, and Wake Forest. Next weekend they play Georgia Tech, which will be a true test of how well they are playing.
Charleston Southern won their series Winthrop 2-1, and only an extra innings loss prevented the sweep.
The Citadel and Wintrop split their weekend series in a double header on Saturday.
Wofford, or some team calling themself Wofford, and got swept, by a total score of 47 to 21. Western Carolina still trails Wofford in conference standings, which makes the total lack of pitching by Wofford more suprising.
South Carolina traveled to Starkville, MS this weekend and came away with a series win. But the series win came at a cost. All American candidate Jackie Bradley, Jr. injured his wrist on a diving catch and is projected to be out atleast 3 weeks, if not the remainder of the season. Also, Evan Marzilli is having an unspecified health issue that has him out for the immediate future. And with Adam Matthews already out, they won the Sunday game with their second/third team outfield, DeSean Anderson, Stephen Neff, and Jake Williams. Powering the team this weekend was Christian Walker who went 10-11, with 8 singles, 1 double, and 1 home run and 4 walks.
Now for the 3 up and 3 down...
3 up
1. Christian Walker, USC... he has been the steadiest of the Carolina lineup this year, but MSU must have been using beach balls while pitching to him this week, 10 for 11... just unreal.
2. Brad Miller, Clemson... he is batting .413 on the year, and that is after a slow start. Since returning to the field from injury, he has been the driving force to Clemson's offense.
3. College of Charleston... winners of their last 4, they are 3rd in the SoCon and are in a good position to make a push for the conference title.
3 down...
3. Winthrop, while struggling, 2-8 in their last 10, they are competitive. Won a conference series against UNC Asheville, beat Wake Forest.
2. Presbyterian, Losers of 12 in a row. They would be #1, but...
1. Wofford, or better yet Wofford pitching. Allowing 47 runs over a 3 game series is not great. One bad game is understandable, or 47 runs against a top 5 nationally ranked team would be understandable, but against a fellow cellar dweller in conference has no words....
Upcoming series of interest... Clemson v Georgia Tech. Is Clemson better now that earlier in the year, or is it just a product of the recent schedule?
Monday, April 25, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
SEC Musings for the past week
The marquee match up of the past week was Carolina/Vandy. Carolina won the series, moved to #2 in the polls, and took control of the SEC East race.
Alabama, who was looking strong out west, now is in a struggle to keep pace, loosing 5 of their last 6 conference games, 2 of them to struggling Tennessee. The woes are sure to continue as they travel to Florida this upcoming weekend.
LSU appears to be playing for their NCAA tournament lives. A conference record of 4-11, and an upcoming series against Vanderbilt does not look good for the Tigers. I'm not picking the field of 64, but with their lone series win against Ole Miss, they will have to win the series against Vandy to put themselves onto more solid ground. Lose the series, and they will have to basically win their last 4 series to get in. Get swept, and they better win out.
The series to watch this upcoming week is Vandy hosting LSU. Can Vandy bounce back from their first series loss of the year, and how well do they perform against an LSU team that is used to winning. And from the other side, can LSU turn their season around?
Alabama, who was looking strong out west, now is in a struggle to keep pace, loosing 5 of their last 6 conference games, 2 of them to struggling Tennessee. The woes are sure to continue as they travel to Florida this upcoming weekend.
LSU appears to be playing for their NCAA tournament lives. A conference record of 4-11, and an upcoming series against Vanderbilt does not look good for the Tigers. I'm not picking the field of 64, but with their lone series win against Ole Miss, they will have to win the series against Vandy to put themselves onto more solid ground. Lose the series, and they will have to basically win their last 4 series to get in. Get swept, and they better win out.
The series to watch this upcoming week is Vandy hosting LSU. Can Vandy bounce back from their first series loss of the year, and how well do they perform against an LSU team that is used to winning. And from the other side, can LSU turn their season around?
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Carolina Baseball for the week of April 19th
Welcome to my thoughts on baseball from the Carolina's.
This past weekend put the state of South Carolina on the college baseball map as #1 Vanderbilt played #3 South Carolina at Carolina Stadium. The three game series would determine the early favorite for the regular season champions of the SEC.
Friday nights matchup between the two teams saw Sonny Gray of Vanderbilt (potentially a first round draft pick) take on Michael Roth of USC. The billing lived up to the hype, as the game remained close through out. Carolina scratched across single runs in the 3rd and 4th innings. In the 7th inning, Carolina SS Peter Mooney hit a wind aided home run to left field that barely cleared the fence. Going into the 8th, Carolina led 3-0. Vanderbilt broke through in the 8th with a triple and a sac fly off of Roth. Matt Price entered the game for Carolina and struck out all 4 batters faced for the save.
Game 2 saw Vandy's Grayson Gavin take on USC's Colby Holmes. Vandy struck first as Kemp led off the game with a double, then scored on two ground outs in the first inning. In the 2nd, Carl Yastrzemski's grandson, Mike, made the score 2-0 with his first home run of the season. Carolina bounced back, and put 3 runs up in the bottom of the second on 3 singles and a walk. Vandy tied in the 4th on a Espisito home run. In the 5th, Carolina's Holmes ran into issues, and Vandy scratched out 3 runs to take a 6-3 lead that they would not relinquish on the way to a 6-4 victory, and a tied series.
The Sunday rubber game saw the two teams battle it out for the SEC East lead. Carolina's Jackie Bradley led off the game with a single, that was misplayed by Yastrzemski in right that allowed him to wind up on 3rd. He would score the next batter as Scott Wingo hit a double to right field. Later in the inning Carolina had two runners thrown out at the plate, and led 1-0 after 1. Vandy tied it in the second inning with an Espisito home run to left center field. It stated 1-1 until the top of the 6th inning when Vandy had back to back solo home runs from Westlake and Espisito to take a 3-1 lead. In the bottom of the 7th, Carolina scored 4 runs in the inning off of 6 Vandy pitchers. and led 5-3. Matt Price pitched 3 scoreless innings in relief, striking out 7 batters.
Overall, the series was played in front of 3 sellout crowds of 8,242 fans. That is a first in Carolina Stadium history. It marks the 5th sellout this year for USC.
Around the state, Furman used 7 Citadel errors on Friday night to score a 12-3 victory, and then used a Will Mizuki bases loaded single in the bottom of the 9th to take a 7-6, and series clinching victory. Sunday, Citadel bounced back, and 3rd game in 10 innings 9-7. Take away the first game, and this was the second best series of the week in the state.
Wofford scored 3 1 run victories, one in extra innings, to sweep Davidson over the weekend. Clemson went to Boston College and took care of business in a 3 game sweep.
Now for the 3 up....
1. South Carolina, although dropping a Tuesday game to The Citadel was not good, they rebounded well, and had their second series win over a #1 ranked team. With the series win, Carolina also is in the drivers seat for the SEC East crown, as they have series wins against all 5 divisional foes.
2. Clemson, after getting swept by North Carolina, they have gone 8-1. The one lone loss is not great as it was to Maryland, only the 3rd time they have one in Clemson in 58 games.
3. Wofford, after a lengthy loosing streak of 9 games, they battled through and swept Davidson at home.
and 3 down...
3. USC Upstate, they have gone 2-8 over their last 10 games, including conference series losses to Lipscomb and Belmont.
2. Charleston Southern, 3-7 in their last 10 games, and swept in conference by VMI.
1. Presbyterian, after beating Clemson, they are 7-13, and have lost 8 in a row.
Upcoming games of interest...
Clemson travels to Georgia on 4/20, Carolina travels to Mississippi St for a weekend series (4/22-24), and The Citadel takes on Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina on the road.
This past weekend put the state of South Carolina on the college baseball map as #1 Vanderbilt played #3 South Carolina at Carolina Stadium. The three game series would determine the early favorite for the regular season champions of the SEC.
Friday nights matchup between the two teams saw Sonny Gray of Vanderbilt (potentially a first round draft pick) take on Michael Roth of USC. The billing lived up to the hype, as the game remained close through out. Carolina scratched across single runs in the 3rd and 4th innings. In the 7th inning, Carolina SS Peter Mooney hit a wind aided home run to left field that barely cleared the fence. Going into the 8th, Carolina led 3-0. Vanderbilt broke through in the 8th with a triple and a sac fly off of Roth. Matt Price entered the game for Carolina and struck out all 4 batters faced for the save.
Game 2 saw Vandy's Grayson Gavin take on USC's Colby Holmes. Vandy struck first as Kemp led off the game with a double, then scored on two ground outs in the first inning. In the 2nd, Carl Yastrzemski's grandson, Mike, made the score 2-0 with his first home run of the season. Carolina bounced back, and put 3 runs up in the bottom of the second on 3 singles and a walk. Vandy tied in the 4th on a Espisito home run. In the 5th, Carolina's Holmes ran into issues, and Vandy scratched out 3 runs to take a 6-3 lead that they would not relinquish on the way to a 6-4 victory, and a tied series.
The Sunday rubber game saw the two teams battle it out for the SEC East lead. Carolina's Jackie Bradley led off the game with a single, that was misplayed by Yastrzemski in right that allowed him to wind up on 3rd. He would score the next batter as Scott Wingo hit a double to right field. Later in the inning Carolina had two runners thrown out at the plate, and led 1-0 after 1. Vandy tied it in the second inning with an Espisito home run to left center field. It stated 1-1 until the top of the 6th inning when Vandy had back to back solo home runs from Westlake and Espisito to take a 3-1 lead. In the bottom of the 7th, Carolina scored 4 runs in the inning off of 6 Vandy pitchers. and led 5-3. Matt Price pitched 3 scoreless innings in relief, striking out 7 batters.
Overall, the series was played in front of 3 sellout crowds of 8,242 fans. That is a first in Carolina Stadium history. It marks the 5th sellout this year for USC.
Around the state, Furman used 7 Citadel errors on Friday night to score a 12-3 victory, and then used a Will Mizuki bases loaded single in the bottom of the 9th to take a 7-6, and series clinching victory. Sunday, Citadel bounced back, and 3rd game in 10 innings 9-7. Take away the first game, and this was the second best series of the week in the state.
Wofford scored 3 1 run victories, one in extra innings, to sweep Davidson over the weekend. Clemson went to Boston College and took care of business in a 3 game sweep.
Now for the 3 up....
1. South Carolina, although dropping a Tuesday game to The Citadel was not good, they rebounded well, and had their second series win over a #1 ranked team. With the series win, Carolina also is in the drivers seat for the SEC East crown, as they have series wins against all 5 divisional foes.
2. Clemson, after getting swept by North Carolina, they have gone 8-1. The one lone loss is not great as it was to Maryland, only the 3rd time they have one in Clemson in 58 games.
3. Wofford, after a lengthy loosing streak of 9 games, they battled through and swept Davidson at home.
and 3 down...
3. USC Upstate, they have gone 2-8 over their last 10 games, including conference series losses to Lipscomb and Belmont.
2. Charleston Southern, 3-7 in their last 10 games, and swept in conference by VMI.
1. Presbyterian, after beating Clemson, they are 7-13, and have lost 8 in a row.
Upcoming games of interest...
Clemson travels to Georgia on 4/20, Carolina travels to Mississippi St for a weekend series (4/22-24), and The Citadel takes on Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina on the road.
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