Series Primer: South Carolina vs Missouri

South Carolina's baseball team enters its second in-conference matchup with a three-game series against the red-hot Missouri Tigers.

You won't find two teams in college baseball hotter than the South Carolina Gamecocks and Missouri Tigers. The two SEC East teams have both strung along impressive winning streaks and made significant jumps in the NCAA rankings. With both teams currently ranked in the top 25, Missouri at 23, and South Carolina at 11, Columbia is in store for a competitive series. Missouri began the season unranked, but they have turned heads with their 17-3 record and are carrying a six-game win streak into this weekend, including a three-game sweep against No. 2 Tennessee from last weekend.

Like South Carolina, Missouri is a team that knows how to get on base, as they as a unit boast a .300 batting average and .415 on-base percentage. Though they get on base frequently, the Tigers lack power in the lineup, which has resulted in fewer runs to this point. Knowing this, South Carolina's pitching staff shouldn't be afraid to attack the plate with high velocity, something that starting pitchers Will Sanders and Jack Mahoney specifically possess the ability to do. 

Missouri also lacks a solid starting rotation, as eight different pitchers start games for them, but just two have started more than three games. Their rotation is led by Chandler Murphy, who has started five games and put forth a 3.04 ERA over 26.2 innings. Carrying over the same idea from the mound to the plate, Gavin Casas, Cole Messina and the rest of the Gamecocks' batting lineup shouldn't be afraid to attack the Tigers pitchers, and if they can deal out significant damage early on in these games, could make it infinitely more difficult to create and sustain momentum.

Though Missouri is riding the momentum of their sweep over Tennessee, South Carolina enters the series as the better team. The Gamecocks have played some of the best baseball in the country this year and should be reinvigorated after a disappointing loss to Charlotte.

How To Watch: South Carolina vs Bethune-Cookman

• Gameday: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 25th-27th, 2023.
• Game time: 7:00 pm ET for Game 1, 4:00 pm ET for Game 2, and 12:00 pm for Game 3.
• TV: SEC Network on Friday and Sunday, and SEC Network Plus on Saturday.
• Stadium: Founders Park (Columbia, SC)
• Live stream on fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!

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