Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Game Cox, the baseball team gets a midweek win. They look to continue the momentum against Florida and also football roster and recruiting notes. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:55] Okay. Welcome to episode 233 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And let me just say, it still feels so good to be a champion. I mean, I am still very much riding the high from last Sunday. Women's college basketball national champions. It's just incredible. And then to see that the championship game outdrew the men's. It's just so cool to have our team and our school be part of this really cool moment in college athletics where women's sports are getting more shine, finally seeing some of the good basketball that can be played on that side as well. And it just still feels amazing to be on top. I mean, all of the merchandise that is being pumped out from various different sources, I want it all. Like, credit card bill is going to be a problem. It just might be because I want everything. Then I want the commemorative hats, the plaques. I've seen bottles of wine with the record on them, and, you know, national champs. Just so, so cool. Anyone who's able to make it to the parade, I am incredibly jealous. And then it was such a cool welcome reception that they had at colonial life. Looked packed, looked exciting. Just such a cool moment still for our school and the support that that team has from the Gamecock community is just amazing. It is second to none, and they give us so much to root for. And I hope they feel the love and appreciation back. But incredible to see all the love that that team is getting. And, yeah, it's going to feel good for a while now. And if y'all hadn't seen Raven Johnson, who was very vocal this season and in the tournament about it being a revenge tour to get back to that championship game and then especially against Iowa, she was very vocal that it was a revenge tour. She came out and said, the revenge tour is over, and the repeat tour now begins. And you absolutely love that. As the ladies will, of course, next season begin their quest to defend their title. And when you look at who is still going to be on that team and some of the elite talent that is set to come onto the team as well. Whoo.
[00:03:32] You had one, maybe two pieces from the transfer portal, and they just might be able to do that. But let's enjoy this. Let's live in the present now as a nice little come down from March Madness and everything, Masters week, is just incredible that that's the perfect way to wean off all of that energy. And it's a different type of energy, for sure. But just being able to distract oneself from responsibilities by watching sports during the middle of the week, I will absolutely take. And there's nothing better than the Masters. Just the sights, the sounds. The patrons absolutely love it here. So going to jump right into things now, really focusing on baseball. That's the main sport going on right now. I will, of course, keep y'all in the loop about comings and goings of that team, but let's look back at this week in review here from around USC athletics before I jump into all that. Very few scores to report here Tuesday. Softball unfortunately took a loss to Clemson by the score of seven. Nothing. Not going to talk about that anymore. It doesn't matter because Clemson is still terrible. Screw Clemson. And then Wednesday you had men's tennis in action. Nice day for them as they beat South Carolina State for nothing and then also beat North Carolina A and t four to one. And then I do have a bit of news here for you all here. News from the football team now, believe it or not, it's crazy to think of, but it's just never ending with these guys. The 2025 recruiting class, that's right, is well underway as Shane Beamer has announced a few welcome homes over the last couple of days. I think we're still waiting on one more to go public. If I missed it, I apologize. So the two I have for y'all here, starting with Brian Rowe, a three star wide receiver from North Carolina. He is listed as six foot, 175 pounds. I'm all about bringing in more wide receiver depth, help all that jazz. I think while that doesn't help the team right now, when you're looking at the makeup of this team, it's definitely going to be a point of emphasis both for the high school ranks and then also in the transfer portal as Shane Beemer and company look to really rebuild and restack that room as they try to find that person who can be head and shoulders above the rest. And then the next announcement here was DeMarcus Leach, a three star safety from South Carolina. He is listed at 62180. Always love getting dbs. You always love getting DBS, whether it's a safety or a cornerback. Torian Gray likes guys who are versatile so they can play nickel safety, corner, whatever that may be. So excited to get that he's got the size, too. Obviously both of these guys are going to fill out more, maybe even get a little taller, but was fun to see that get going. I think there's four guys, maybe five, who are in that class right now. Of course you're going to look for that to get bigger. But as spring practice goes on, the team is always hosting prospects and things like that. It's always exciting to see. And then on the opposite side of things here from the football team, offensive lineman Jackson Hughes has answered the entered the transfer portal. He was here for just the one year. He came from Charlotte. Last offseason he transferred in. He appeared in just two games while at USC. He started a lot while at Charlotte, so maybe that rubbed him the wrong way. I'm not losing a lot of sleep over this. Hope Jackson goes somewhere and succeeds. Probably his last year of eligibility, so hope he gets his playing time. Hope he gets his tape. I'm not losing sleep over it. We got tree, Trovan, bow Franks, Marquis.
[00:07:35] We're good. Granted, those guys got some work ahead of them. That's the conversation for a different day. But that is your news and notes from around USC athletics. But the team that was in action that caught a lot of our attention this week was the baseball team as the guys were up in Charlotte this past week against UNC. And y'all know this, but any Gamecock fan will tell you that playing in Charlotte will make you nervous, especially going up against a very solid team that that UNC has, right? I mean, I said it before going to the game. Just going to Charlotte just feels like a house of horrors when I think statistically, at least in recent years, it really hasn't been all that bad, but just scars from the past and all that jazz. But nonetheless, here the guys got the W winning two to one in a game that was really all about pitching as hits and runs came at a premium. Gamecocks took the lead first thanks to Gavin Cassis little ground ball scoring, and then UNC would go to tie things in the 7th. So some late inning drama. But then Dylan Brewer coming up clutch with the big knock in the 8th inning with an RBI. That would prove to be the difference.
[00:09:01] Big, big time credit to this south Carolina pitching staff in this game.
[00:09:07] Make no mistake about it, UNC is a good team and they have a good offense and this pitching staff got in there and they pounded the zone. They came to play. They took this game seriously and it was really just what you needed when the bats necessarily weren't there. Dylan Askew, very solid start in the mid week spot. Going to be really interesting to see with Askew.
[00:09:32] I don't know if it's that he's out of the weekend rotation permanently, but I could see him being that midweek starter a good chunk of time. Eddie Copper, I don't think we have official confirmation but I think his injury is pretty severe. I could see him getting the midweek start this back to SQ against maybe some stronger competition, right? Maybe a team like a UNC that you play in the midweek could also see SQ coming in maybe for a spot start on like a Sunday but long relief for sure in any given weekend, right? Because you know he can give you three, four innings. So liked him in this spot. He pitched really well. Loved to see Roman Kimball got in there a little bit longer. This one. If he continues trending in the right direction, having that command, that is another weapon for this pitching staff. Another guy who maybe does he fight back into the rotation? I don't think anybody is, is really all that set except for maybe Eli Jones in this rotation. So. But again, Kimball can come in in relief and pitch well for you in big spots.
[00:10:46] Parker Milat got tagged for the run in this game. Still a decent showing though. And then Conor McCreary with the win closing things out with two and a third of innings work offensively in this game. The guys obviously didn't. Just enough to win, which you know when you're looking back at the score sheet that's what you're looking at, right? You got the win. That's all you care about. But you did see some of the same issues that we have been talking about in this game with particularly leaving guys on base. So it's a concerning trend and strikeouts are a little higher than you want. So definitely seeing some things still persisting. But I'll take the win. Right. But at the same time, right. That's two wins in a row for this Gamecock team against ranked teams going back to Sunday against A and M and then today against UNC. Right? So what is on deck for Carolina this weekend? We have a weekend series at Florida. So in Gainesville, the Gators are ranked 24th in the country, sitting at 17 and 15 overall. Six and six in conference. They are also on a four game skid heading into this matchup here. So when you look at the record six and six matches South Carolina's, but the overall record, the Gamecocks are ahead in that department also.
[00:12:19] Uncle Moe, the momentum is on the Gamecock side with having one two in a row. The opposite side obviously Florida losing four in a row. They feature first baseman and also comes in and pitches. Jack Cagloni. Caglione, excuse me, a real do it all guy for the Gators. I mean, you look at some of the stuff he's doing, hitting and pitching, it's just very impressive. Right. Kind of the stuff you just see in college. Right. But this is obviously a big time matchup, right? These two teams have plenty of history, as we know, very recently, and it usually produces very competitive series and usually it does tend to favor that home team. So I don't love that this game is away, but maybe after winning up in Charlotte, the guys have a little bit of a boost going into this game also. I mean, when you look at it, you know, you take that first glance at some of the numbers here. I think Carolina should match up pretty well to Florida. Like there's pitching, you know, comparable. Hitting is comparable. Like, I think Florida hits for power a little better than the Gamecocks do. But pitching, I think they might be a little bit more susceptible. So it's going to be a very interesting matchup here. If the guys could go on the road and let's say steal a series win, all of a sudden you've seen a week, week and a half where things are maybe clicking a little bit for this team. I don't know if things are ever going to look really pretty because you are really asking a handful of guys to carry the load when it's offensively and then the pitching wise, you need to get to that, back into the bullpen and things like that. So I do think this team can go down there and get that series win.
[00:14:18] What does that translate to? We'll see. It seems to be a real up and down type of year for the Gamecocks so far, but your pitching rotation is as follows. Friday, Eli Jones, Saturday, Ty Goode getting the start, and then Sunday, Matthew Becker cracks the rotation. I like that. I personally also like having the rotation set going into the series. I know there's some strategy involved in that, but even just aesthetically, right, like having that TBA is always just bleh. And again, I recognize there's some strategy to it. Gamesmanship, you want to leave yourself a little wiggle room and things like that, but having the confidence to set your rotation going into it, it's just the tried and true method, you know what I mean? And Becker, he has the good stuff, he's pitched well, and maybe, you know, the amount of innings he can go can be into question. But I'll take four really good innings, then getting out of it early, you know what I mean? So should be a good series. My crow to the series here. I hate to sound like a broken record here, I swear I will change this up, but it is hit with runners in scoring position. And I'm saying that again because from what we've seen lately, this is has to be the top priority from this team. We need to see them hit well, move guys around the base path because otherwise it's just not a winning formula. And especially when you talk about playing and winning on the road, that has been a struggle for this team so far this year, especially against top competition game. The Gators, excuse me, are ranked going into this matchup. So you need to go out there and you take it seriously. You need to be locked in. You know, I don't know if there's going to be a two to one win in this series. Guys are going to have to get on base, produce those runs, move the guy over, hit him in. You don't have to necessarily rely on the long ball. If Petri gets one up, you absolutely love it. But there are some guys in this lineup who need to start hitting and catching up to some of the defense that they're showing. So should be an interesting matchup. Again, I like what we see at first glance at the numbers. It's tough that it's on the road. Going to be a mixed bag, I'm sure. But let's see. Let's see what the guys can do after having two good wins in a row under their belt going up against the Florida team that is seemingly reeling. I mean, they got swept by Mizzou and then they just lost to Florida State. So maybe there's plenty of more issues in the Gators dugout than there is the Gamecocks. But should be a fun series. And all eyes in Gamecock Nation are now squarely on our baseball program, for better or worse. So hopefully they can deliver after everyone is coming off such a high from last weekend. But with that, y'all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is Cox Gamecocks. Instagram is just the name of the show, Cox talking Gamecocks. And please like subscribe and review the podcast. I appreciate all y'all. Go Cox.
