South Carolina-Kentucky: Time, TV, pitching, weather, odds

South Carolina plays Kentucky in the SEC Baseball Tournament on Friday. Here is everything you need to watch and listen to the game, plus the start time, pitching, weather, and odds.

Last updated Friday, May 24 at 9:45 a.m.

South Carolina-Kentucky: The Basics

• Date/Time: Friday, May 23 @ 4 p.m.
• Place: Hoover, Alabama – Hoover Met Stadium
• Television: SEC Network with Mike Monaco, Chris Burke
• Streaming video: WatchESPN (verified TV provider required)
• Radio: Gamecock Radio Network with Derek Scott, Stuart Lake; pregame at 3:45 p.m.
• Streaming audio: Learfield and the South Carolina Gamecocks app (Apple, Google)
• Weather: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, partly sunny, with a high near 89, southwest wind 5 to 10 mph, chance of precipitation is 40%
• Odds: Kentucky is a moneyline favorite of -161 (average of sportsbooks)

South Carolina-Kentucky: Probably starting pitchers

• South Carolina: Dylan Eskew
• Kentucky: Mason Moore

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How we got here, what’s next

Kentucky is the No. 3 seed. The Wildcats lost to No. 11 seed LSU 11-0 (8 innings) on Wednesday and beat No. 2 seed Arkansas 9-6 on Thursday.

South Carolina is the No. 10 seed. The Gamecocks beat No. 7 seed Alabama 10-5 on Tuesday, beat No. 2 seed Arkansas 6-5 on Wednesday, and lost to No. 11 seed LSU 11-10 on Thursday.

The winner of the game advances to play LSU on Saturday at 1 p.m. The loser goes home.

South Carolina SEC Tournament History

• Carolina is 32-54 all-time in SEC Tournament play.
• The Gamecocks won the event in 2004, winning four games, including a 3-2 win over Vanderbilt in the tournament final.
• Carolina went 1-2 in last year’s tournament, defeating Georgia 9-0 before falling to LSU (10-3) and Texas A&M (5-0).
  (Info from USC Media Relations)

Gamecock Radio Network: Affiliates for SEC baseball series

• 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 Thursday’s South Carolina-LSU game

By Jack Veltri

Two teams with bullpen games fighting for a chance to advance and stay unbeaten. What else would you expect other than an absolute bloodbath?

In a game that featured about as much drama as one could want, LSU came from behind to pick up an 11-10 win over South Carolina in the third round of the SEC Tournament on Thursday. The Gamecocks (35-22, 15-18 SEC) will now play in an elimination game against Kentucky on Friday.

“It was a hell of a game,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “Both sides did things to win. Both sides did things to lose. They got the one more hit, and we’ve got to wear it today, and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow, like we have been all year.”

Right out of the gate, this game delivered with the fireworks. After falling behind 1-0 heading into the third inning, the Gamecocks got to LSU starter Thatcher Hurd. He’d serve up an RBI double off the bat of Ethan Petry to tie the game. He’d depart after walking the bases loaded with no outs.

And as if the timing weren’t perfect enough, the scorching hot Cole Messina was due up. On the first pitch he saw from Nate Ackenhausen, he crushed a grand slam that left the ballpark to give South Carolina an early 5-1 lead. For Messina, this was his fourth homer in three days of play in Hoover.

With what felt like some wiggle room, Tyler Pitzer came back out for his fourth inning of work. And almost immediately, that move didn’t work out. He’d serve up back-to-back doubles to give LSU a run back.

Jake McCoy came in after Pitzer and didn’t fare much better, at least not right away. He’d give up an RBI single and then a two-run homer to Jake Brown to tie the game up at five in the fourth.

Both teams traded runs in the fifth before LSU retook the lead in the sixth. But South Carolina quickly got two runners on to set up another try at tying the game. However, LSU would fight back to get the first two outs of the inning to set up what could be a huge missed chance for the Gamecocks.

But just in the nick of time, Messina came up huge again with a two-run single into right center. This gave the Gamecocks the lead back, but for Messina, it would be his 14th RBI of the week to become the SEC Tournament’s RBI record holder.

“I mean, I felt like he, Christian Little, has got a really good fastball. He’s had a really good fastball since we were 14. I was geared up for it, and threw a cutter away, and I felt like I stayed through it just enough to hit it in that gap and have a good at-bat for my team,” Messina said.

One batter later, Parker Noland singled past the diving glove of the second baseman to bring home two more runs and give South Carolina a 10-7 advantage.

However, the toughest challenge of the night still remained. With a bullpen that had been used plenty, South Carolina needed to find a way to piece together the final nine outs of the game.

After a leadoff walk, Connor McCreery retired the side in order in the seventh while striking out two. But in the eighth, he worked into some trouble after a Talmadge LeCroy throwing error. With two on, he got Tommy White to fly out to right for the second out. But he’d walk the next batter to load the bases.

Less than 48 hours after firing 67 pitches to give the Gamecocks a huge win over Alabama on Monday, Chris Veach came into the game. He’d do his job as he got a ground ball to first. But the ball went through Gavin Casas’ legs and allowed two runs to score to make it a one-run game.

Veach would get out of any further trouble with a strikeout of Hayden Travinski to end the threat.

After South Carolina left two runners stranded in the bottom of the eighth, Veach would come back out for the ninth with a one-run lead. The pressure was on more than ever.

Right away, LSU got two on with two straight singles, putting the winning run at first. The Tigers would tie the game with one out on a Alex Milazzo sacrifice fly.

As fate would have it, former Gamecock Michael Braswell ripped a go-ahead RBI single down the left field line. South Carolina got out of further trouble as Austin Brinling robbed White of a potential two-run homer.

In the last of the ninth, Dalton Reeves ripped a one-out single into center to bring the winning run to the plate. However, LeCroy flew out to right and Casas flew out to center to seal the deal.

“Look, it was a hell of a game. It’s a hell of a week, and it’s going to serve us well moving into next weekend,” Kingston said. “One of these teams was going to be very disappointed coming in here tonight. Today is our turn. But it doesn’t do anything for our resolve to continue to get better, continue to support each other, and be ready for the next one.”

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