| 2011 College World Series | #4 South Carolina Gamecocks vs. #2 Florida Gators | |||
| Date | June 27, 2011 | 8:00 p.m. EST | 7:00 p.m. CDT |
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| Location | TD Ameritrade Park (24,000) | Omaha, NE |
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| Television | ESPN/ESPNHD | ||
| Radio |
Gator Radio Network, Sirius: 91, XM: 91 |
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| Live Stats | GatorZone GameTracker | ||
| Streaming Video | ESPN3.com | ||
| All-Time Series | South Carolina leads series 38-29; 2-1 this season. |
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At the end of the NCAA Baseball Tournament, it's SEC vs. SEC, further proving the Southeastern Conference's athletic prowess in major sports. Florida (53-17) returns to the Championship Series for the first time since 2005 when they were swept by Texas. South Carolina is looking to repeat as National Champions. Overall, Florida is a more complete team. They have used a balanced attack of pitching, hitting, and defense (they led the SEC in fielding percentage) to get to the Finals. South Carolina has a very good pitching staff led by Michael Roth and his sub 1.00 ERA. The Gamecocks also have the uncanny ability to come through with timely hit after timely hit. And they've made plays in the field that are game changers. I would almost say they are lucky, but I'd like to give more credit to a team that shared the SEC regular season title, has set the NCAA record for most consecutive NCAA Tournament wins (14 and counting), and is 53-14 on the season. Bottom line is the Gators are the more complete team left and that usually wins out.
Florida's ace Hudson Randall (11-3, 2.24 ERA) will head to the mound tonight against South Carolina's freshman righty Forrest Koumas (6-1, 3.07 ERA). This would be a rematch of the only game the Gators won against the Gamecocks during their series in Gainesville in March. Koumas proved to be wild, walking two and hitting three batters, but held the Gators to two hits and one run while striking out five. Florida, in my opinion, has the advantage in Game One.
Pregame, in-game, postgame thoughts? Comment away!