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South Carolina is 26-5 after beating Appalachian State but losing two of three to Arkansas last week. The Gamecocks dropped to fourth in the Collegiate Baseball and USA Today coaches' poll and are ranked 5th by Perfect Game and Baseball America. The Gamecocks will face the Furman Paladins at Fluor Field in Greenville Tuesday night. This is the second meeting between the two teams this season. South Carolina won the March 11th game in Columbia 5-0, but has lost two of the last three games against the Paladins at Fluor Field. South Carolina is 110-54-2 against Furman overall.
The Paladins are 11-21 overall, 2-7 in the Southern Conference, and enter Tuesday night on a five-game losing streak. They are hitting .281 and have the both an on-base percentage and a slugging percentage of .361. Furman's ERA is 6.13 and opponents are hitting .282 against them. All of those numbers are fairly similar to what they were the first time these two teams met.
The Gamecocks are coming off of two straight losses to Arkansas and are in a bit of an offensive slump. They only scored five total runs in the four games last week and were shutout for the first time this season on Saturday in the series finale against Arkansas. The team batting average has dipped down to .289 overall, though the Gamecocks are still hitting .330 in non-conference games. The team on-base percentage is .362. Despite the offensive struggles, pitching has remained strong for the Gamecocks. The team ERA of 1.79 is still good for 3rd in the country and opponents are hitting .206 against South Carolina.
Junior right-hander Evan Beal will be on the mound for the Gamecocks in his third start of the year. Beal has pitched 9.1 innings and allowed only 2 hits and no earned runs. He has walked 1 batter and struck out 6. The likely starter for Furman is senior left-hander Ryan Dittmar. He has an ERA of 6.75 through 8 innings pitched this year.
Start time: 7 p.m.
Location: Greenville, S.C. (Fluor Field)
Radio: 107.5 The Game