Thursday, April 30, 2009

More numbers

by Barca Blog - South Carolina head coach Ray Tanner has led one of college baseball’s premier programs for the last 13 years since arriving in Columbia in 1997. Tanner has taken the Gamecocks to the College World Series three times and holds the second highest all-time winning percentage among SEC coaches behind legendary LSU coach Skip Bertman.

But here are some series statistics that may interest Vanderbilt fans as the Commodores travel to face the Gamecocks starting Friday at Carolina Stadium.

Under head coach Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt has won the last four regular season series against South Carolina including the last two series in Columbia (2005, 2007). Overall, the Commodores have taken 10 of the last 14 games between the clubs.

These numbers are impressive considering Tanner held a 17-1 mark against Vanderbilt in his first six seasons at USC (1997-2002). Since Corbin took the helm in 2003, the Commodores and Gamecocks have split their 22 meetings, with the ‘Dores holding the upper hand since 2005. USC did take the first two series against Corbin's squad in 2003 and 2004 and both of those Gamecock teams eventually made it to Omaha.

This weekend will be crucial for both squads as Vanderbilt (27-17, 10-10 SEC) and South Carolina (27-18, 9-12 SEC) hold the seventh and eighth spots in the conference standings with three weeks left in the regular season. The team that takes the series would be on the inside track to advance to postseason play... so here’s hoping the Commodores make it five in a row.

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