Braylen Wimmer opens up on challenge of Florida pitchers

South Carolina senior Braylen Wimmer is facing one of the better pitching staffs in the country as the Gamecocks take on No. 2 overall seed Florida in Gainesville this weekend with a trip to the College World Series on the line. Of course, with these two schools being in the SEC, they’ve already faced one another in a series South Carolina swept in Columbia. But it’s a whole new ball game now and in a new location with completely different stakes, yet Wimmer believes there is something to glean from already having faced the Gator pitchers.

“Yeah, I mean, obviously one of the best staffs in the country. We’ve seen them already once, so they don’t have anything we haven’t seen already,” Wimmer explained at his press conference this week. “So we’re excited. I know it’s a clean slate.”

One reporter asked Wimmer is he and the team have gone back to look at tape from that first Florida series to prepare for the heat they’ll see on the mound this weekend.

“Yeah, I mean, of course you can go back and out the video now, you can go back and watch to see how they pitch you, the shapes of every pitch,” said Wimmer. “You kind of still have a memory of the shapes and everything that’s on, so it’s definitely big.”

At least the Gamecock star has some kind of feel for this elite Gator staff. But as mentioned, this is a whole new deal now that the teams are facing off in the Super Regional.

“I almost want to say it felt like something new. Obviously, we’re playing in June now and it’s…the vibes were different,” Wimmer said of the last meeting with UF. “Obviously, you see our celebrations are different, we kind of we kind of changed some things around. It’s the postseason now. Everybody’s just excited to be here and we’re just embracing every moment.”

The two clubs will get Super Regional play going later on tonight (Friday evening) at 6 p.m. sharp on ESPN2. Then, we’ll get Game 2 on Saturday afternoon at roughly 3 p.m. also on ESPN2. If those games are split, that would set up a Game 3 on Sunday and a time is not yet set for when that would get going.

Some top-15 baseball is coming our way from two national seeds out of the SEC. Grab your popcorn or get on out to Condron Family Ballpark.