As the season winds down, the top college baseball teams are currently playing for seeding in their conference tournaments and to make it into the NCAA Tournament. This weekend, a ranked matchup between the No. 15 Georgia Bulldogs and the No. 13 South Carolina Gamecocks.
South Carolina is coming off a series win against Missouri and Georgia is coming off of a sweep against Vanderbilt. Both teams come into this series with a 13-11 conference record which has them tied for third in the SEC East.
Whoever wins this series, will take sole possession of third place in the SEC East and will likely sit as the fifth seed in the entire SEC for the tournament. If either team sweeps, they might be a favorite to host a regional for the beginning of the NCAA Tournament.
Georgia has the better offensive team going into this series, but South Carolina has better pitching. The Bulldogs are ranked second in the SEC in slugging percentage and home runs. South Carolina has a team earned run average of 4.49 and Georgia has a 5.31.
If South Carolina can limit the home runs, then they should be able to keep things close. One hitter the Gamecocks need to pitch around is Charlie Condon, a dangerous hitter for the Bulldogs who has a batting .459 batting average with 33 home runs and 69 runs batted in. He also has an OPS of 1.673, which includes an on-base percentage of .568 and a slugging percentage of 1.105.
Another hitter to watch out for in this series is Ethan Petry for South Carolina. The sophomore slugger has a batting average of .301 with 19 home runs and 48 runs batted in. He also has an OPS of 1.153, which includes an on-base percentage of .482 and a slugging percentage of .671.
South Carolina has tried different options as a starting pitcher for Game 1 matchups. Last week against Missouri, Roman Kimball got the start and threw an inning before Ty Good pitched for four more. Eli Jones and Dylan Eskew should both start in games this weekend for the Gamecocks.
Georgia also switches it up with relievers starting the game and throwing an inning before another comes on and throws multiple innings. Leighton Finley and Charlie Goldstein should both start in games this weekend for the Bulldogs.
Overall, this looks like a very exciting series between two solid programs. Game 1 will be on Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. ET.