South Carolina will be hosting this weekend at Sarge Frye Field. They will be joined by Wofford, NC State, and Charlotte.
South Carolina
The Gamecocks are coming off the SEC Tournament in which they went 1-2 with a victory over Florida which was bookended by losses to Arkansas. They are led by one of the top sophomores in the country in Justin Smoak. He is considered one of the top two players in the country with Pedro Alvarez of Vanderbilt. He is hitting at .304 for the season with 18 homers. James Darnell leads the team in hitting with a .338 average and also has 18 homers on the season. Arik Hempy leads the starting pitchers with a 5-3 record and an ERA of 2.87. They open the tournament on Friday at 7 pm when they take on Wofford.
South Carolina Game Notes
NC State
NC State heads down the road to South Carolina to take part in the NCAA Regional. The Wolfpack went 1-2 in the ACC Tournament with a victory over Georgia Tech and picked up a losses to Virginia and North Carolina. The Wolfpack are led by catcher Caleb Mangum who is hitting .286 but is solid behind the plate. Ryan Pond leads the team in hitting with a .330 average and six homers. Eric Surkamp leads the starting pitchers with an ERA of 3.18 and a 4-4 overall record. They also have one of the top draft picks in their rotation with Andrew Brackman but he struggled throughout the year with his control as his record stands at 6-4 with a 3.81 ERA. The CBB saw the Wolfpack twice this season in which Brackman pitched in Game 2 and Jimmy Gillheeney pitched Game 3 of the series with Boston College. NC State will play Charlotte at 2 pm on Friday.
BREAKING NEWS: NC STATE HAS LEFT ANDREW BRACKMAN OFF THE ROSTER THIS WEEKEND. FULL STORY AVAILABLE HERE.
Charlotte
The Charlotte 49ers (47-10) will take part in the NCAA tournament after winning the Atlantic 10 conference tournament and receiving the automatic bid to the NCAA tourney. Charlotte is led by All-American pitcher Adam Mills who leads the team with an 1.07 ERA in 17 games. He has a record of 13-2 with four shutouts and an opponents batting average of .186. Brad McElroy leads the offense with a .412 batting average. They open up the tournament at 2 pm on Friday when they take on in-state rival NC State at 2 pm.
Charlotte Tourney Notes
Wofford
Wofford (30-31) enter this weekend as the Southern Conference Tournament Champion as they won the tournament as the number 9 seed. They are led by Brandon Waring who is hitting .405 on the season with 27 home runs. (That is not an error.) Ben Austin is 11-5 with a 4.03 ERA in 17 starts. They will open the tournament by taking on South Carolina at 7 pm on Friday.
Wofford Tourney Notes
The CBB predicts that South Carolina will win the regional but Charlotte will give them a run for the money as the 49ers pitchers are some of the best in the country.
