Baseball 3/31/2022 Kent Reichert

Gamecocks Travel to Missouri for Three-Game SEC Series

The Gamecocks and Tigers start the series on Friday night at 7 p.m. Eastern time.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The University of South Carolina baseball team travels to Columbia, Mo., to face Missouri in a three-game Southeastern Conference series. The games begin on Friday, April 1 at 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET). Saturday's game starts at 2 p.m. CT (3 p.m. ET) and the series concludes Sunday, April 3 at 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET). All three games will be on SEC Network Plus. All games also will be broadcast on the Gamecock Sports Network with Derek Scott and Tommy Moody on the call. The Gamecocks are coming off a 9-6 loss to Presbyterian on Tuesday night.

SCOUTING MISSOURI
The Tigers are coming off midweek wins over Illinois (11-7) and SIU-Edwardsville (12-2) in the midweek. Nander de Sedas had three RBI in Wednesday's win while Missouri walked 16 times in seven innings in the SIUE win. de Sedas, a Florida State transfer, leads the Tigers with a .378 batting average, while Torin Montgomery is hitting .375 with 19 RBI. Austin Troesser leads the pitching staff with a 1.93 ERA in 23.1 innings pitched while Nathan Landry has 33 strikeouts in 25.1 innings pitched.

SERIES VS. MISSOURI
Carolina leads the all-time series with Missouri, 16-11, after taking 2-of-3 games from the Tigers on April 9-11, 2021. Andrew Eyster and David Mendham drove in three runs apiece while Brady Allen went 3-for-4 as Carolina won the 2021 season finale, 13-4. Will Sanders and Brett Kerry combined to strike out 14 batters in that Sunday win.

PROBABLE PITCHING ROTATION
Friday
South Carolina
Noah Hall (Jr. RHP) 0-4, 7.62 ERA, 26.0 IP, 16 BB, 29 SO
Missouri Spencer Miles (Jr. RHP) 2-1, 6.04 ERA, 22.1 IP, 10 BB, 24 SO

Saturday
South Carolina
Will Sanders (So. RHP) 4-1, 3.44 ERA, 36.2 IP, 13 BB, 43 SO
Missouri Tony Neubeck (Fr. LHP) 2-1, 5.00 ERA, 18.0 IP, 12 BB, 27 SO

Sunday
South Carolina
Matthew Becker (Fr. LHP) 1-1, 3.74 ERA, 21.2 IP, 14 BB, 34 SO
Missouri Austin Marozas (Jr. RHP) 0-0, 4.72 ERA, 13.1 IP, 8 BB, 10 SO

BELK RETURNS TO COMO
Senior Brandt Belk will return to Columbia, Mo., this weekend as he played for the Tigers in 2020 and 2021. He was a Collegiate Baseball All-America second team in 2020 with the Tigers, hitting .457 with seven runs scored, three doubles, two home runs and nine RBI. Last season, Belk played in 42 games, hitting .273 with a team-best 15 doubles to go along with two home runs and 22 RBI. Belk had three doubles for Missouri at South Carolina on April 9, 2021. This season at Carolina, Belk is hitting .349 with three home runs and 16 RBI while carrying a 13-game hitting streak to Missouri.

SANDERS KEEPS ROLLING
Will Sanders helped the Gamecocks to an 8-2 win over No. 4 Vanderbilt on Friday night, striking out 11 batters in seven innings of work. He allowed just six hits with two earned runs and just two walks to improve to 4-1 on the season. Sanders had multiple strikeouts in the first, third, fourth and sixth innings and now has 43 strikeouts on the season, which is tied for ninth in the league. Sanders also is fourth in the league with 36.2 innings pitched.

UP NEXT
Carolina faces North Carolina on Tuesday night (April 5) at Truist Field in Charlotte, N.C. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be on ACC Network Extra.