Auburn vs South Carolina - Gamecocks Enter Pivotal Road Series

The South Carolina Gamecocks enter a pivotal road series on Thursday against the Auburn Tigers.

The South Carolina Gamecocks begin their second to last conference series on the baseball diamond this weekend against the Auburn Tigers. The Tigers are currently ranked inside of the top 10 and are coming off of a big series win against Tennessee.

The Gamecocks have had quite a dissapointing season thus far under head coach Paul Mainieri. They may not be fighting for postseason positioning against Auburn but they could be fighting for the future direction of the program.

South Carolina lost a tough series to Florida last weekend and in the fina game of the weekend they gave up over 20 runs to the Gators. That sparked up a conversation around the circle of whether Mainieri would remain as the head coach. Mainieri has since assured everyone that there haven't been any conversations of him leaving the program.

Brandon Stone is the expected starter for the Gamecocks on Thursday. This season he holds a 2-5 record, a 5.09 ERA in 53.0 IP and 11 BB with 39 SO. For the Tigers, it's Cam Tilly (So. RHP) who is the expected starter. He has a 2-1 record, a 4.78 ERA in 32.0 IP and 20 BB with 41 SO.

The last time these two programs played one another in Auburn, the Tigers completed the weekend sweep. Something South Carolina will look to avoid this time around. First pitch is set for 7:00 PM and it will streamed on ESPN 2.

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