NCAA Regional Preview: South Carolina vs NC State

South Carolina's Baseball team looks to move onto the championship game of their regional as they face NC State in the winners bracket on Saturday night.

Mark Kingston and the South Carolina Gamecocks left no doubt on the field in their first regional game on Friday night, dismantling the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils via an offensive barrage. Now, Carolina will matchup against a much more formidable opponent in the NC State Wolfpack, who held a potent Campbell offense to just one run in their afternoon game on Friday.

South Carolina will have junior right-hander Jack Mahoney trot out to the mound for their game this evening. Besides his outing on short rest against Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament, Mahoney has been hitting his stride as of late, as in his last two regular season outings, Jack gave up one earned run in thirteen innings of work, striking out fifteen batters in that stretch. He'll face an NC State lineup that's renowned for both their power at the plate along with their patience, as the Wolfpack have smashed 92 homers and accumulated a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 1.37. The two Wolfpack batters Gamecock fans should watchout for are Cannon Peebles and LuJames Groover III, as the pair have combined for 25 homers and 99 runs batted in.

On the flipside, NC State will send out Matt Willadsen to the mound, objectively the best starter for the Wolfpack this season, as he's accumulated a 3.54 ERA and a 3.03 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Other pitchers like Dominic Fritton, Sam Highfill, and Baker Nelson will be pitchers available for today's game should NC State have to go deep into the bullpen.

The winner of this game will have a the huge advantage of getting essentially two games of leeway in the Regional Championship round, while the losing team will have to face Campbell at noon on Sunday afternoon to avoid elimination. 

How To Watch: South Carolina vs North Carolina State

• Gamedays: Saturday, June 3rd, 2023
• Game time: 6:00 pm EDT
• TV: ESPN+
• Stadium: Founders Park (Columbia, SC)
• Live stream on fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!

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