South Carolina releases 2019 baseball schedule

The South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team released its full 2019 regular-season slate earlier this week, and there are a few interesting takeaways. The highlights:

• South Carolina will continue its recent tradition of playing an out-of-conference matchup in the Charlotte Knights’ ballpark, this time with a twist. This season, the Gamecocks will have not one, but two games against North Carolina squads in Charlotte — UNC, of course, and also N.C. State. Both are strong baseball programs and will provide early season tests for the Gamecocks. (Also, South Carolina has yet to beat North Carolina in one of these college showcases, but uh, let’s not get into all that.)
• The Gamecocks have an early season home series against Utah Valley. I know nothing about that program, I just think it’s wild they’re on the schedule.
• This is the last year that the neutral site game in the Carolina-Clemson rivalry series takes place in Greenville, S.C., before shifting to the Fireflies’ park in Columbia in 2020. And yes, I’m still loving how that’s considered a neutral site.
• South Carolina hosts The Citadel in a mid-week matchup, but then also travels to face the Bulldogs in Charleston in another mid-week contest later that month. Interesting decision there. The Gamecocks also have to road trip to Greenville to face Furman, and have a curious neutral site game in North Augusta against Charleston Southern.
• The Gamecocks get both Vanderbilt and Kentucky at home, which is a big help — Vandy looks like a national title contender again, and Lexington has typically been a house of horrors for the baseball team (and football too, but who’s counting). USC has to travel to Florida and Mississippi State, but the road schedule otherwise looks manageable (Tennessee, Alabama, and Missouri). No LSU or Ole Miss to contend with this year, either.

Full schedule

(home games/series in bold)

Feb. 15-17: Liberty

Feb. 19: Winthrop

Feb. 20: Presbyterian

Feb. 22-24: Utah Valley

Feb. 26: Appalachian State

March 1-3: at Clemson, Clemson (Greenville), vs. Clemson

March 5: The Citadel

March 6: Gardner-Webb

March 8-10: Valparaiso

March 12: at The Citadel

March 15-17: Georgia

March 19: at Furman

March 22-24: at Tennessee

March 26: N.C. A&T

March 29-31: Auburn

April 2: N.C. State (Charlotte)

April 5-7: at Alabama

April 9: Charlotte

April 12-14: at Florida

April 16: North Carolina (Charlotte)

April 19-21: Texas A&M

April 23: Charleston Southern (North Augusta)

April 26-28: at Missouri

May 3-5: Vanderbilt

May 8: Furman

May 10-12: Kentucky

May 14: USC Upstate

May 16-18: at Mississippi State