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After grabbing a first-round bye in the SEC Baseball Tournament, the South Carolina Gamecocks finally go to work. Their opponent: the Ole Miss Rebels, who defeated the Georgia Bulldogs 5-1 yesterday in the second game of the tourney. Gamecocks fans may be treating this as the preferred matchup, especially since Carolina swept the Rebels earlier this season in Oxford and managed to win just one out of three contests against the Dawgs.
With the Gamecocks looking to open the tournament with a win for the first time since 2011 and advance past the second round for the first time since 2007, Chad Holbrook will be putting the ball in the hands of his ace. Clarke Schmidt (9-2, 2.72) bounced back from last year's disappointing freshman campaign and established himself as a anchor in the weekend rotation throughout the regular season. On the other end, it will be David Parkinson (4-3, 2.70) getting the call for Mike Bianco.
The Gamecocks are hoping that they can take the easy road to a possible tournament title rather than being forced to play out of the elimination bracket. They also know that they can ill afford another 0-2 showing if they are to clinch a national seed in the NCAA Tournament. While it's almost a given they'll host a regional, to firmly plant themselves in the seeding discussion, they may have to, at worst, get to the semifinals. First order of business, though: beating the Rebels.
Start Time: approx. 2pm ET
TV: SEC Network
The SEC Network will be showing every game of the SEC Tournament all the way through Saturday's semifinals.
Live Stream: WatchESPN.com
All games will be shown live on WatchESPN.com.