South Carolina Baseball Validates Standing With Performance Against LSU

South Carolina's Baseball team has faced questions this season regarding their long-term potential and shut them down this past week against the LSU Tigers.

Before the season began, South Carolina's non-conference schedule was perceived to be more on the lighter side, which might have been viewed by both those within the program and those who follow it closely as a welcome sight due to the vastly different lineup the team was taking into February. The Gamecocks would wind up eviscerating the non-conference portion of their weekend schedule, losing just one lone game to their arch-rivals in the Clemson Tigers in the stretch as mentioned above.

Despite their dominance, pundits questioned if South Carolina was essentially a "fools-gold" team that had taken full advantage of an admittedly lackluster non-conference slate but could potentially crumble once they began SEC play. Mark Kingston's squad continued their torrid pace through the first three weeks in conference play, sweeping Georgia and Missouri and winning two out of three games on the road in a hostile Dudy Noble Field against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

While South Carolina rose to a No. 6 ranking after their series against Mississippi State, people once again seemingly moved the goalposts, pondering if the Gamecocks would fair well against a "legitimate" national-level opponent in the LSU Tigers, who carried a No. 1 ranking heading into last Thursday. After what happened in the two games that South Carolina and LSU were able to play last week, no one in their right mind is questioning the Gamecocks any longer.

South Carolina made superstars Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews look human for the first time all season long, and for 13 of the collective 18 innings played in Founders Park, either matched or out-played the No. 1 ranked Tigers. Regarding overall play, the Gamecocks outplayed the Tigers on the mound, displayed equal levels of power and a greater ability to play small ball compared to LSU, and only committed one error to the Tigers' three, and LSU came into the series leading the conference in total fielding percentage.

While the Gamecocks likely have a sour taste in their mouth from the ending of game two and the fact they didn't get a chance to win the series outright in a third game, they've proven to college baseball that they are a force to be reckoned with the rest of the way. With a powerful batting lineup, deep pitching staff, and usually reliable fielding, South Carolina possesses the ingredients to make it back to the College World Series.

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