As the College Baseball season is in full swing, both the Clemson Tigers and Carolina Gamecocks will look to get important series wins this weekend that will pave the way for their next few weeks. Both Gamecocks and Tigers have been on the right track as of late, with South Carolina winning six out of their last seven and the Tigers of Clemson getting back-to-back series wins in the past two weeks. 

 After winning their first series win in Athens, Georgia for the first time in over ten years the 19-8 South Carolina Gamecocks will return home for one week as they are hosting the Missouri Tigers, who is the worst team in the Southeastern Conference. While the opponent may not be big, this weekend presents a huge opportunity to the Gamecocks as its critical for South Carolina to win this series heading into four straight weeks of playing elite competition. It’s important for the Gamecocks to get on the right foot this weekend and have a lot of momentum heading into these next few weeks, as momentum is everything in College Baseball. After South Carolina’s first home series in April vs Missouri, the Gamecocks will host Charleston Southern following by a road trip to LSU, a team who has been struggling as of late but is still an elite baseball club. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Gamecocks baseball team as after playing LSU the #2 Arkansas Razorbacks, #3 Ole Miss, and #5 Mississippi State will be waiting for South Carolina in consecutive weeks. This makes sweeping the Tigers all important this weekend and it’s an absolute must for the Gamecocks to remain in April on the right foot. 

 Two hours up the road the 14-11 Clemson Tigers will look to win three straight series, this time against the struggling 14-14 Virginia Cavaliers. After Clemson’s sweeping loss against North Carolina in mid-march when the Tigers were still reeling from a 2-0 series loss against the Gamecocks, Clemson rebounded and looked like a different team. Since the loss against North Carolina, the Tigers are 9-3 and as hot as they’ve been all season, winning two straight series and losing a tough midweek game against the Georgia Bulldogs, who have been an up and down team all season long. Clemson defeated Boston College and North Carolina State in back to back weekends and will look to do the same this week against a struggling Cavaliers squad who is just looking for anything positive. Though the quality of the opponents hasn’t been elite, the Tigers have all of the momentum in the world which is ultimately all you need in College Baseball. With momentum you can take down anyone on any given weekend.  

 As both Clemson and South Carolina are taking on some weak opponents this weekend, these series will prepare both teams for huge road series next weekend, as the Tigers will travel to Miami to face on the #18 Hurricanes while the Gamecocks head to the Bayou to play the LSU Tigers.