South Carolina Baseball Link Dump and Open Thread

Well, I’m very proud of the way Carolina finished their regular season. A sweep of Georgia in any sport is always a special thing. I like USC’s chances in Hoover and even in their regional. With the strong starting pitching we’ve displayed in the past few weeks, I think those two formats play well to USC’s strengths. However, I really can’t see the Gamecocks making it past a Super Regional. I just don’t think the pitching depth is there for a truly deep run in the post season. I could certainly be wrong with the way the Cocks pitched this weekend, on the other hand. Nolan Belcher was impressive in his start Friday. By the way, the TV cameras do not do his height justice. He looks positively tiny on the mound in person. Still, UGA has suffered yet another late season collapse in yet another odd year curse for them. I remain cautiously optimistic. Regardless, I think this team has already outperformed expectations.

On a slightly related topic, I’m sad to see Casey Rihn go. Not in the “I don’t think he shouldn’t have been kicked off the team” sense, but rather in the “he had great potential and it’s too bad he’s so stupid” sense. He had a solid batting average, and, IMHO, was a better value at 2b. Wingo’s decent OBP notwithstanding, I’m still searching for reasons why Rihn didn’t get more playing time in Wingo’s stead. And the entire incident is just strange. Let me be clear, I have no sympathy for Rihn. It just seems to me that a kid in his position would not just start banging on a police cruiser for no reason (seemingly with his face, no less). Clearly he was being an idiot and all indications are that he was rightly kicked off the team. I would just like to know what might possess a kid with no prior record to pick a fight with a Columbia police officer.