Vanderbilt Travels to No. 17 South Carolina For Three-Game SEC Series 3/27/03

Vanderbilt concludes the month of March at No. 17 South Carolina this weekend in a three-game Southeastern Conference series. The Commodores (13-10, 2-4 SEC) sit in third place in the Eastern Division standings, one game ahead of the fourth-place Gamecocks (16-9, 1-5 SEC). Game times are 7 p.m. ET on Friday, 4 p.m., on Saturday and 1:30 p.m., on Sunday.

Vanderbilt has managed to win one of three games against each of its first two league opponents at then-No. 10 Mississippi State and at home against Ole Miss. South Carolina has lost five consecutive league games after winning the first game in the Arkansas series two weeks ago. Last weekend the Gamecocks were swept at Tennessee. Overall, Vanderbilt enters the weekend having won four of its last eight while South Carolina has dropped six of its last seven.

Friday’s game pits two of the SEC’s top strikeout pitchers against one another in Vanderbilt’s Jeremy Sowers (0-3, 2.98 ERA) and South Carolina’s Steven Bondurant (2-1, 4.50 ERA). Sowers leads the league with 51 strikeouts while Bondurant ranks third with 41.

Saturday will see a pair of right-handers face off in Vanderbilt junior Robert Ransom (2-0, 3.05 ERA) and USC freshman Conor Lalor (4-0, 1.33 ERA). The series finale on Sunday has Vanderbilt freshman left-hander Ryan Mullins (1-3, 2.78 ERA) facing USC junior southpaw David Marchbanks (4-2, 2.42 ERA).

South Carolina holds a significant advantage in the series, winning 29 of the 35 games since the series began in 1992. The Gamecocks have won 17 games in a row against the Commodores and have never lost a series in Columbia.

The series also marks the return of Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin to the state of South Carolina. Corbin served nine seasons as an assistant on Jack Leggett’s staff at Clemson before taking the vacant Commodore head coaching position last June.

Complete Notes