Florida wins series against South Carolina. How does USC look for the SEC tournament?
The South Carolina baseball team dropped its final road series of the season to Florida, losing to the Gators 8-0 on Friday night after dropping Game 1 on Thursday.
Mark Kingston’s Gamecocks already came into the weekend outside of the NCAA tournament picture and didn’t do themselves any favors. USC (26-27, 12-17 SEC) ranked No. 76 in the RPI before Saturday’s game, well outside of the field of 64, and now the team is below .500 on the season and is 3-14 in road games.
But the Gamecocks did qualify for the SEC tournament, which includes the 12 top teams in the 14-team SEC conference in terms of winning percentage. To earn a regional berth, USC will more than likely need to win the Hoover, Alabama, tournament title outright. Under Kingston, the Gamecocks have gone 1-4 in the SEC tournament.
Both Missouri and Mississippi State failed to qualify for the SEC tournament. The Gamecocks project as the No. 10 seed, above Alabama and Kentucky, both teams USC won series against and hold the tiebreaker for.
The Gamecocks fell to Florida 14-5 on Thursday and couldn’t find any success offensively on Friday. The Gators tagged USC starter Noah Hall for three runs Friday, chasing him after three innings, while scoring three more runs against reliever Cam Tringali.
At the end of the fifth, Kingston got ejected from the game for arguing with the umpire, possibly in an attempt to fire up his team.
Next USC baseball game
Who: South Carolina at Florida
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida
Watch: SEC Network Plus
