Takeaways From Gamecocks' Series Win Over Clemson

South Carolina's Baseball team both answered the bell and raised questions in their series win over their arch-rivals in the Clemson Tigers.

Considering the fact they only have one loss to their name and are currently ranked as the 20th best team in the country according to D1Baseball.com, life is good for Mark Kingston and South Carolina's baseball team, who just knocked off their rivals in the Clemson Tigers for the third time in the past four years. While they managed to leave Founders Park on Sunday with a years worth of bragging rights that they'll hold over the Tigers, their play on the field was inconsistent at best, with multiple trends developing that could either propel or hold the team back from realizing their full potential.

What are these trends?

Hall Is The Gamecocks' Best Starting Pitcher

Heading into this season, South Carolina's starting pitching rotation was full of storylines, with Will Sanders being looked at as a potential all-american, and Jack Mahoney making both his return to the mound for the first time in two years, and subsequently, noise with his scorching velocity. It's been Noah Hall, however, who's been the best starter out of the trio of pitchers, lasting six innings against the Tigers on Saturday and giving up only three runs.

For the third straight week, Hall has been Carolina's most efficient starter and should that continue to be the case, might potentially push for the Friday night spot.

Hitting Is Streaky

Although it's typically a football reference, the baseball series was really a tale of two halves for Carolina's batting lineup, who scored just two runs off of nine hits in the first fourteen innings of the series, but went on a torrid pace on the back half of the series, scoring eighteen runs on eighteen hits over the final thirteen innings of action. It's clear that although the Gamecock batting lineup is one that can feed off each others success, they'll have to eventually learn how to play small ball in games where runs are at a premium.

Fielding And Baserunning Are Concerning

If there are any facets of this baseball team right now that could hold them back from making a deep postseason run, it's fielding and baserunning. While not every play in the field was easy this past weekend, the Gamecocks more often than not didn't do themselves any favors, committing another five errors, giving them an average of 1.2 per game this season, ranking dead last in the SEC.

Add in minor baserunning mistakes that gave Clemson multiple outs, and South Carolina has reason to worry.

You Might Also Like:

• Kingston On Clemson Series: "It's A Celebration Of Baseball"
• South Carolina Pitcher Receives Weekly SEC Honor
• South Carolina Baseball Remains Top Ranked Team

Join the community:

• Follow Andrew Lyon on Twitter: @ALyon_SC
• Follow Christian Dart on Twitter: @ChristianJDart
• Follow Fisher Brewer on Twitter: @USCTalk
• Follow Locked On Gamecocks on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts

You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the top right-hand corner of the page. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook @GamecocksDigest & follow us on Twitter at @GamecocksDigest.