2021 SEC And South Carolina Schedule Updates

[ConwayGamecock]

Some latest updates regarding the 2021 baseball season. The SEC - and as a result, USC's - schedule for 2021 had not yet been established until earlier this week. The conference office has decided to run a normal, 56-game schedule for 2021, consisting of ten (10) 3-game conference weekend series, and 26 non-conference games. The season is slated to begin February 19th, and conference games will begin a month later on March 19th:

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/sec-sticks-with-status-quo-for-2021-college-baseball-schedule/

Now that we know this much, actual series against non and conference opponents can begin being scheduled. One such question here involved our annual series against in-state rivals Clemson. The question here was doubly tricky, as the ACC has announced that they will play an increased conference schedule of 12 3-game series as opposed to just 10, and also will only play a total of 50 games, not 56. This reduced the number of non-conference games to just 14, and there was a question if this would impact our series with them.

Now we know through Clemson's own athletic department, that while our series will take place a week earlier than it has been - in the 2nd week of the season as opposed to the third - it will still be on the books to be played:


So the pieces of the 2021 season are beginning to be put together. Hopefully the full picture will result in being another great year of Gamecock Baseball!

 

[jrgamecock]

I hope that the season can be "normal" and it is the beginning of the return to normalcy.

 

[Homebrewcock]

Looking forward to some college baseball and I too hope it can be as normal as possible.  Being that it is outside I think helps, but there is still the risk of athletes getting Covid since they are in close proximity at other times.  We need this vaccine nationwide!

 

[ConwayGamecock]

The 2021 South Carolina Baseball schedule seems to be finally fleshed out now, with the non-conference schedule released Friday:

This can now be added to the SEC schedule brought out last week:

So the full 2021 schedule is:

GAMES:

1-3) February 19-21 vs Dayton

4) February 23 vs Winthrop

5) February 26 at Clemson

6) February 27 vs Clemson (at Greenville)

7) February 28 vs Clemson (at Founders)

8) March 2 at Winthrop

9-11) March 5-7 vs Mercer

12) March 10 at The Citadel

13-15) March 12-14 TBA *

16) March 16 vs Davidson

17-19) March 19-21 - SEC WEEK 1 at Vanderbilt

20) March 23 vs The Citadel

21-23) March 26-28 - SEC WEEK 2 vs Florida

24) March 30 vs Gardner-Webb

25-27) April 2-4 - SEC WEEK 3 at Georgia

28) April 6 vs North Carolina (at Charlotte)

29-31) April 9-11 - SEC WEEK 4 vs Missouri

32) April 13 vs Charleston Southern

33-35) April 16-18 - SEC WEEK 5 at Louisiana State

36-38) April 23-25 - SEC WEEK 6 vs Alabama

39) April 27 vs The Citadel

40-42) April 30-May 2 - SEC WEEK 7 at Mississippi

43) May 4 vs North Florida

44-46) May 7-9 - SEC WEEK 8 vs Mississippi State

47-49) May 14-16 - SEC WEEK 9 at Kentucky

50) May 18 vs Appalachian State

51-53) May 20-22 - SEC WEEK 10 vs Tennessee

* The 13-15 games scheduled for the weekend of March 12 through 14 was a non-conference opponent that backed out of the meet due to covid issues, per Coach Mark Kingston. This was odd considering that the season doesn't even begin until another three weeks, and the scheduled weekend series was going to be still another three weeks after that. Seems that would've been long enough to quarantine the team and let the virus pass, but oh well. Coach Kingston stated they were looking for a replacement for that opponent, for that weekend. Hopefully we find someone, but this close to the start of the season means that most teams already have their schedules filled out....

 

[ConwayGamecock]

* The 13-15 games scheduled for the weekend of March 12 through 14 was a non-conference opponent that backed out of the meet due to covid issues, per Coach Mark Kingston. This was odd considering that the season doesn't even begin until another three weeks, and the scheduled weekend series was going to be still another three weeks after that. Seems that would've been long enough to quarantine the team and let the virus pass, but oh well. Coach Kingston stated they were looking for a replacement for that opponent, for that weekend. Hopefully we find someone, but this close to the start of the season means that most teams already have their schedules filled out....

Looks like the staff have found an opponent to fill that empty weekend slot, and its a big one:


Well, the "BIG schedule agreement announcement" is still forthcoming from the USC Athletic Department and Baseball program, but everywhere else, it's being reported as a done deal that the #18 South Carolina Gamecocks will play at #9 Texas Longhorns in Austin, TX. on the weekend of March 12-14. The agreement is a home and home that will see Texas come to Founder's Stadium next season for a weekend series.

The news has been reported as official by Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball, and The State has already put out an article on the meeting:









 
If it's set, then this is a big series. The Gamecocks and Longhorns have not faced each other since 2002, when both played for the College World Series Championship in the last year the single-game format was held. The Gamecocks lost 12-6 that Saturday day, after having played the previous day on Friday against its arch-rival Clemson, defeating them in an emotional game 10-2 to reach the Championship Game. Texas had Friday off after having beaten Stanford 6-5 on Thursday.
 
The addition of Texas to an already typically stout schedule that features the SEC every year, gives the Gamecocks one of the more impressive schedules for 2021:
 
 




 
Coach Kingston (and others) think this 2021 Gamecock squad may end up as a special ball club, and Kingston certainly isn't going in double helpings on the gravy with the schedule, either. Hopefully it will add up to a very exciting and memorable season for Yardcock Nation!