South Carolina-Arkansas: Time, TV, pitching, weather, odds
South Carolina plays Arkansas in the SEC Baseball Tournament on Wednesday. Here is everything you need to watch and listen to the game, plus the start time, pitching, weather, and odds.
Last updated Wednesday, May 22 at 8 a.m.
South Carolina-Arkansas: The Basics
- Date/Time: Wednesday, May 22 @ 2 p.m.
- Place: Hoover, Alabama – Hoover Met Stadium
- Television: SEC Network with Dave Neal, Chris Burke
- Streaming video: WatchESPN (verified TV provider required)
- Radio: Gamecock Radio Network with Derek Scott, Stuart Lake; pregame at 1:45 p.m.
- Streaming audio: Learfield and the South Carolina Gamecocks app (Apple, Google)
- Weather: Mostly sunny, high near 89, light south wind 5 to 10 mph
- Odds: Arkansas is a moneyline favorite of -160 (average of sports books)
- Arkansas is the No. 2 seed; South Carolina is the No. 10 seed; the winner of the game will play the winner of Wednesday morning’s Kentucky-LSU game; the loser of the game will play the loser of Wednesday morning’s Kentucky-LSU game
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South Carolina-Arkansas: Probable starting pitchers
- South Carolina: RHP Eli Jones, 3-4, 5.49 ERA, 60.2 IP, 18 BB, 49 SO
- Arkansas: RHP Ben Bybee, 2-1, 6.00 ERA, 24.0 IP, 9 BB, 31 SO
South Carolina SEC Tournament History
- Carolina is 31-53 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 Tuesday’s South Carolina-Alabama game
By Jack Veltri
Down 3-0 through two innings, this was an eerily familiar spot. South Carolina had been prone to falling behind and never being able to recover.
But just when it looked like it was going to be another long day for the Gamecocks, the bats finally came to life. From the third inning on, they’d score 10 runs to pick up a 10-5 win over Alabama in the first round of the SEC Tournament on Tuesday.
With the win, South Carolina (34-21, 14-17 SEC) has snapped a six-game losing streak dating back to May 9. But in terms of the bigger picture, this win should all but lock up a spot in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
“The great thing about the postseason sometimes is guys start to create moments that they will remember for the rest of their life,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “This is our first one in this postseason, I hope we have a lot more, because again, I think this team is very capable.”
After scoring all of seven runs over the weekend in Knoxville, the bats finally got going in the third as Gavin Casas crushed a solo homer into the visitor’s bullpen. Two batters later, Ethan Petry left the yard to cut the deficit to one.
For Petry, that was his 44th career home run, which ties him for fifth-most in program history alongside Landon Powell.
Later in the frame, the Gamecocks had the bases loaded with two outs. And on a 2-0 pitch, Dalton Reeves blasted a go-ahead grand slam into deep right to give them an early 6-3 lead. This was the team’s first grand slam of the season.
“It was a lot of joy,” Reeves said. “We knew that we’re a good team and we’re going to take it one pitch at time. We got down, and nobody flinched, really. It was, ‘All right, guys, let’s keep doing what we’re doing.'”
This would give South Carolina’s bullpen, which had a long day ahead, some room to work with. After Dylan Eskew got the start and gave up three runs, Matthew Becker came in and settled the Tide’s bats down.
The left-hander gave up two runs over two innings and faced 10 batters. Chris Veach came in after him and had one of his best outings of the year.
“I don’t want it to be lost how good Matthew Becker was for us there,” Kingston said. “He kind of allowed the game to stay within reach, got a couple of really big outs when he came in the game. And then he got to 39 pitches. So we thought it was time to hand the ball over to Veach.”
After coming in for Becker in the fourth, Veach was in his bag for the rest of his outing. After a leadoff single in the fifth, the right-hander retired the next 12 batters he faced in order.
Holding a one-run lead going into the fifth, Cole Messina hit his 17th homer of the year into left center to get a run back. He’d continue to have a strong day at the plate as he ripped a two-run double into right center to take a 9-5 lead in the sixth.
Up by five in the ninth, Veach came back out to finish what he started. It didn’t seem like much of a debate, especially without a soul warming up in the bullpen. This was his game.
With the top of the order due up for Alabama, Veach continued to do what he had been doing all day. He gave up a one-out double, ending his streak of retiring 13 straight hitters. But he got out of trouble and finished the job to give the Gamecocks a huge win.
“It’s like a big amount of trust to allow me to pitch that long,” Veach said. “Just basically Matt (Williams) said, ‘One batter at a time,’ once I was at my third inning or so. So just a lot of trust, and I appreciate that from them.”
On the day, Veach tossed 5.2 scoreless innings and gave up just three hits. He struck out six without a walk on 67 pitches. It was easily the longest outing of his career at South Carolina.
