It’s finally that time: Clemson and South Carolina duking it out in college baseball’s premier rivalry.

If you haven’t been following baseball in these first few weeks of the season, let’s get you caught up. Clemson comes in at 8-0 on the season with series wins over Army and Bryant, and a pair of midweek wins over Charlotte and Presbyterian. Some of these wins were hard fought, but considering Clemson is still figuring things out as far as transfers fitting in the lineup, and dealing with some key injuries, and undefeated start and the #15 ranking in the nation is nothing to turn your nose up at.

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For South Carolina, well, it hasn’t been great. The Gamecocks record is 6-3, which isn’t terrible, but their losses are not good. One loss came in their opening series to Northern Kentucky. The Cocks took that series 2-1, but dropped the Sunday game. That on its own isn’t a major issue as plenty top tier teams have dropped a game in a series against a mid-major (see Georgia and Georgia Tech).

It doesn’t stop there though. The Gamecocks were in the opening game of their Salute to the Troops series, losing 9-5 to Army in a game that was not as close as the score appears. South Carolina righted the ship, and finished the weekend beating Navy and Air Force, but the real eye popping loss was on Wednesday, as they fell 9-8 to Queens University. Queens led at one point 9-1. Last year, Queens was 9-44 and their win over the Gamecocks put them only at 4-4. It was their first win over a Power 4 school in program history.

After missing the NCAA Tournament and having a losing record, Gamecock Nation was not excited about bringing coach Paul Mainieri back, and this start has all but confirmed those fears. If the Gamecocks lose the series against Clemson, and particularly if they get swept for the second year in a row, it would require a major turnaround for Mainieri to regain the trust of the fans. When South Carolina hired Paul Mainieri, who won the 2009 national championship in his 14 year career as the head man of LSU, I said this felt like when South Carolina hired Lou Holtz to coach the football team, and so far, getting a championship winning coach out of retirement has felt much more like Holtz than Steve Spurrier.

But Erik Bakich and the boys know that you can’t overlook your biggest rival. Despite the struggles, there is talent on that South Carolina roster, and Clemson will need to be locked in and ready to get their best.

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Pitching wise, Clemson is going with the same rotation as last weekend. Ace Aiden Knaak will get the nod Friday night in Columbia against Gamecock Righty Josh Gunther. Knaak has thrown a grand total of 8.0 innings in 2 games, but it would behoove Clemson if he can go longer tonight, as the Tigers are still trying to figure some things out with the bullpen, particularly with the injury of Jacob McGovern.

Saturday is also in Columbia but at Segra Park, the home of the Columbia Fireflies. South Carolina is starting Amp Phillips against Tennessee transfer Michael Sharman. If the name Amp Phillips sounds familiar, it’s because Clemson saw him twice last year when he was a member of the USC Upstate Spartans. In last year’s 7-0 Tiger win over Upstate, Phillips went 2.0 innings as the starter at Fluor Field, allowing no hits, no runs, walking 1 and striking out 2. Phillips’s second appearance vs the Tigers was in the Clemson regional opener, where he went 6.0 innings allowing 6 hits, 3 runs, and struck out 9 in a game that the Tigers eventually won 7-3. After Amp’s performance, many Clemson fans immediately started discussing the idea of Clemson getting him in the transfer portal, but unfortunately he decided to stay in the University of South Carolina system and head to Columbia. Needless to say, Amp is an absolute gamer and the Tigers need to work some long counts on Saturday to try to get into the Gamecock bullpen early.

Sunday will conclude the series back in Tiger Town, as Talan Bell gets the nod against South Carolina’s Riley Goodman. For lack of a better term, I’m calling Talan Bell and Drew Titsworth co-starters for this game. Both are coming back from injury and on pitch counts, and last Sunday they combined for 5 innings, allowing 2 hits, 3 earned runs, and striking out 5. I expect a similar set up this Sunday.

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor

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For more on Clemson’s pitchers and a broader season preview, check out this video I did with other STS writers:

The action gets going tonight at South Carolina’s Founders Park with a 7:00 PM first pitch (weather permitting). Saturday gets going at 3:00 PM at Segra, and Sunday concludes at 3:00 PM at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. All games can be found on the ESPN App, because ESPN still doesn’t respect college baseball enough to give this rivalry a true TV game. This is another issue of starting college baseball season right as college basketball is reaching it’s critical point, but that’s another discussion for another day. Today is a rainy day in Columbia, so prepare for delays. The rain should hopefully be out of Columbia by first pitch on Saturday. Sunday at Beautiful Tiger Field is projected to be about 61 degrees with a 7% chance of rain.