South Carolina (26-7) returns home Tuesday night to take on The Citadel (17-16) at 7 p.m. at Carolina Stadium. The Gamecocks will send right-hander Joel Seddon (1-0, 5.11 ERA) to the mound to face Citadel's freshman righty Austin Livingston (2-0, 6.48 ERA).
The Gamecocks are coming off of a much needed sweep of the Tennessee Volunteers last weekend to improve their standing in the SEC Eastern Division to second and they are third overall in the SEC. Carolina won four of five games last week, including a 9-5 win over Charleston Southern a week ago.
The last time USC faced The Citadel they defeated the Bulldogs 9-5 at Joe Riley Park in Charleston. Joey Pankake, Greyson Greiner and LB Dantzler all tallied home-runs, including three RBI's a piece from Greiner and Pankake.
But, lately the offensive production has come from several different areas.
"We've had some big swings of the bat," Head Coach Chad Holbrook said after Saturday's win over UT. "Offensively, we've squared some balls up, Max [Shrock] continues to swing it, Graham [Saiko] had a few hits and it was a very satisfying series win for us."
This weekend's performance was Carolina's best performance at the plate this season as the team hit a combined .375 (45-for-120) with 36 runs scored. The Gamecocks dished out a season-high 21 hits with 10 different players
recording at least one hit in Sunday's 19-2 win.
The 19 runs were the most in a game for USC since scoring 24 in a game vs.
College of Charleston in 2011 and the most in a conference game since scoring
20 on Alabama in 2010.
Max Shrock was named SEC Freshman of the Week after hitting .500 (11-for-22) in five games last week, including a game-winning RBI-double in the ninth against Tennessee Friday night to lift the Gamecocks to a 5-4 victory. He also tallied eight RBI, scored seven runs and lifted his season average to .264
"Hitting is contagious," Shrock said. "Once one guy gets hot, another guy can get hot and we just hit it today."
Another key to the Gamecocks strong run has been the input from the bullpen. Senior Adam Westmoreland played a big role in both Friday and Saturday's wins at Tennessee. His outing on Saturday was huge as he allowed
just one run on five hits in a season-high six innings of relief to improve to 4-0
on the year. Westmoreland fanned six and walked none in his six innings.
"I try to go out and just throw strikes," Westmoreland said after his strong performance on Saturday. "I try to just stay ahead of the hitters. I know they had a big inning, but our offense has responded well. They hit the ball and did some big things for us."
After facing The Citadel on Tuesday, the Gamecocks will travel to Gainesville this weekend for a three game set with Florida.
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