South Carolina-James Madison: Time, TV, pitching, weather, odds

South Carolina and James Madison will play an NCAA Tournament elimination game on Sunday. Here is everything you need to watch and listen to the game, plus the start time, pitching, weather, and odds.

South Carolina-James Madison: The Basics

• Date/Time: Sunday, June 2 @ Noon
• Place: Doak Field at Dail Park – Raleigh, North Carolina
• Traditional TV: ESPNU with Dani Wexelman, Roddy Jones
• Streaming video: WatchESPN (verified TV provider required)
• Radio: Gamecock Radio Network with Derek Scott, Stuart Lake; pregame at 11:45 a.m.
• Streaming audio: Learfield and the South Carolina Gamecocks app (Apple, Google)
• Weather:  Mostly cloudy, with a high near 84, southwest wind 5-8 mph
• Odds: South Carolina is a moneyline favorite of -217 (average of sportsbooks)

South Carolina-James Madison: Probable starting pitchers

• South Carolina: Dylan Eskew (R-Jr., RHP) 3-4, 4.87 ERA, 57.1 IP, 24 BB, 38 SO
• James Madison: Casey Smith (Jr. RHP) 1-3, 5.59 ERA, 38.2 IP, 16 BB, 24 SO

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What’s Next?

The loser of the game is eliminated.

The winner of the game plays NC State on Sunday at 6 p.m.

Gamecock Radio Network (for baseball)

• Allendale, 93.5 FM, WDOG
• Camden, 98.7 FM, WCAM
• Camden, 1590 AM, WCAM
• Charleston, 98.9 FM, WTMZ
• Chesterfield, 107.3 FM, WVSZ
• Columbia, 107.5 FM, WNKT (flagship station)
• Florence, 96.3 FM, WOLH
• Florence, 1230 AM, WOLH
• Greenville, 104.9 FM, WROO
• Greenville, 1440 AM, WGVL
• Myrtle Beach, 100.3 FM, WSEA
• Rock Hill/Lancaster, 107.1 FM, WRHM
• Spartanburg, 98.3 FM, WSPG
• Spartanburg, 1400 AM, WSPG
• Waynesboro, 92.9 FM, WYBO

Recap of Saturday’s South Carolina-NC State game

By Jack Veltri

Find a way to cut the lead or tie the game, give the lead right back. Rinse and repeat. That was the story of the night for South Carolina.

After a game-tying two-run homer by Dylan Brewer, who homered twice, in the seventh, the Gamecocks turned to Connor McCreery. But very quickly, he worked himself into trouble after putting two runners on with no outs.

“Connor McCreery’s left-handed batting average against was .111. We’ll take our chances with that every day of the week,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “We have a lot of information with the decisions we make. And we generally make decisions based on what gives us the best chance to win. And Connor McCreery coming in against a very left-handed hitting lineup with that kind of opponents batting average gives you a chance to win. Gave up a hit to the first guy, it just didn’t work out. But I don’t question the decision.”

McCreery would get the first out afterwards, albeit a long fly out to the warning track in left. Not wanting to take any chances, pitching coach Matt Williams came out to the mound to take the right-hander out and turn to Matthew Becker to get the right matchup with a lefty batter due up.

Becker would walk the first man he faced to load the bases. Then, he got a line out to Will Tippett for the second out. But after falling behind 3-1, the left-hander threw a pitch low and outside to give NC State the lead back.

Ultimately, this run would be the difference in the game. South Carolina fell to NC State, 6-4, in the winner’s bracket matchup of the Raleigh Regional on Saturday.

Moving forward, the Wolfpack will need one more win to advance to Super Regionals. Meanwhile, the Gamecocks (37-24) will face elimination on Sunday and need to win three more games to advance.

Every time South Carolina’s offense got something going, the pitching gave it right back. Garrett Gainey got the start on the mound and immediately gave up a long solo homer three pitches into his outing.

He’d somewhat settle in after that, but he’d also serve up two more long balls to give NC State four runs. The left-hander made it through six innings, struck out four and walked two on 87 pitches. It was a serviceable start but those three mistakes were the difference for him.

“Pitches just got left over the zone. They’re a good fastball hitting team,” Gainey said. “It wasn’t a terrible outing, not my best of the year. Feel like I can improve and hit my spots a little better. But I felt like I gave us a chance to win.”

For the most part, it was one of the games where South Carolina had to keep fighting back after trailing. But home runs from Tippett and Brewer would eventually get the game back to being even.

For Brewer, though, it was a big night when he probably least expected it. With Ethan Petry out of the lineup, Brewer slid into left field and made his first start since April 26. He’d finish 2-for-3 with the two homers and three RBI.

“I was told to be ready just in case something was wrong with (Petry. I found out like 20 minutes before the game, found out he was hurt,” Brewer said.

“I was just happy to be out there. Obviously, this is my fifth year and I want to win. I love those group of guys.”

But after Becker gave up the lead, he’d run into another tricky spot in the eighth. With runners on the corners and two outs, the runner at first stole second base without an issue. Dalton Reeves pump faked that way and threw behind the runner at third to try and get a tough out. However, his throw hit off the runners helmet and went down the left field line to give the Wolfpack a 6-4 lead.

“Well, we did everything right. Again, we walked the guy that had two homers to put first and third. As soon as we did that, we knew that they could potentially try some type of play,” Kingston said. “So we put the arm fake on. The guy bit on the arm fake and Dalton just hit the guy in the helmet. I mean, it happens. Everything was good except for the throw hitting the guy in the helmet. He bit on the arm fake, it’s exactly what we wanted. And it was just unfortunate that the throw hit the guy and they scored a run.”

“I feel like we’re going to be all hands on deck, and we’re going to get it done,” Gainey said. “We’re going to believe in that. We’re going to get it done. So y’all should too.”

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