The Texas A&M Aggies hope to have a better fate on Sunday night than the Texas Longhorns did on Saturday when the Aggies take the field in Omaha against the South Carolina Gamecocks in their first game of the 2011 College World Series.
The Aggies survived a drubbing in the second game of their Super Regional matchup against the Florida State Seminoles, as Florida State took Texas A&M to the house and then some, beating the Aggies 23-9. The Aggies, though, rebounded in the third game, beating Florida State with ease, 11-2 to advance to the College World Series.
South Carolina has yet to lose in the tournament thus far, needing just three games to advance out of the regional round before defeating the Connecticut Huskies 5-1 and 8-2 in the Super Regional, advancing to Omaha unblemished.
The folks over at I Am The 12th Man broke down the South Carolina pitching:
The Aggies will most likely be facing off against South Carolina's ace hurler Michael Roth when we take the field Sunday at 6 PM. The junior southpaw is 13-3 on the season with an anemic 1.02 ERA, and 95 strikeouts in 123 innings pitched. Roth was a reliever last year as a sophomore who came alive in the postseason, when pitching depth is most crucial, getting a win in relief in their Regional, beating Clemson in a complete game in his first career start in the College World Series, and then beating UCLA as a starter in a 2-1 victory in the national championship series. A full-time starter this season, Roth was named a first-team All-American by Baseball America for his season-long dominance, which included six wins in SEC play.
Roth is 2-0 in NCAA postseason play for Carolina, giving up 6 hits and 1 unearned run in 8.1 innings in their 5-1 win over Connecticut in the first game of the Columbia Super Regional. He went 7 innings and gave up an unearned run against Georgia Southern in Carolina's 2-1 win in their Regional.
Looking at the Carolina bullpen, they are stellar there, too, with second-team All-American RHP Matt Price (5-3, 18 saves, 67 strikeouts in 50 innings, .205 OBA ) as their closer, and RHP John Taylor (6-1, 1.27 ERA, .182 OBA) working as their set-up man. Taylor has a three-quarters delivery, so if we managed to get to their bullpen, we could see lefty, three-quarters righty, and then right-handed flamethrower, in that order.
First pitch between the Aggies and Gamecocks is scheduled for 6 p.m. CDT. Coverage can be found on ESPN2.