Sunday, April 23, 2023

Palmetto State Baseball team of the week, April 17-23: South Carolina


South Carolina (4-0 for the week)
(beat Charleston Southern; went 3-0 vs. No. 3 Florida)

There were lots of really worthy candidates this week (mentioned below). But how do you pick someone other than a team that swept the third-ranked team in the country while playing without one of its top pitchers and three-quarters of its infield for most of the series?

The Gamecocks finally won a head-to-head series against one of the teams it quite possibly will be competing with for one of the top national seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

USC (34-6, 13-4) moved into first place overall in the SEC standings by a half-game over Vanderbilt  (29-11), which was swept at Tennessee over the weekend.

 Carolina almost certainly will move into the top five - perhaps the top three - when the new rankings are announced Monday. 

Up next for the Gamecocks:  at home against Auburn, Friday.

Also considered
Clemson (3-1) - three straight ACC series wins; swept N.C State; now 9-9 in ACC
Coastal Carolina (3-1) - won key Sun Belt series
College of Charleston (3-1)
Coker (3-1)
Columbia International (2-1)
Erskine (4-1)  - scored school-record 40 runs 
Florence-Darlington Tech (5-1) - won top seed for Region 10 tournament
Lander (4-0) - improved PBC Tournament prospects
Newberry (3-1) - won SAC regular-season title
USC Sumter (6-0)
USC Upstate (3-1)
Winthrop (3-1) - swept Big South series
Wofford (3-1) - series win earned tie for SoCon lead

Previous winners
Jan. 23-29: Spartanburg Methodist
Jan. 30-Feb. 5: Limestone
Feb. 6-12: North Greenville
Feb. 13-19: Florence-Darlington Tech
Feb. 20-26: Southern Wesleyan
Feb. 27-March 5: Wofford
March 6-12: USC Aiken
March 13-19: South Carolina
March 20-26: North Greenville
March 27-April 2: Coastal Carolina
April 3-9: USC Upstate
April 10-16: USC Union

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