GamecockScoop – Off to Gainesville: Gamecocks learn super regional opponent

South Carolina will have to do it the hard way.

After dropping into the loser’s bracket of their own regional, the No. 2 national seed Florida Gators won three games in two days against UConn and Texas Tech to advance to their first super regional since 2018. The clinching game was Monday afternoon, when Florida defeated Texas Tech 6-0 in the regional final.

It means South Carolina will travel down to Condron Ballpark next weekend for the super regiolnal, a best-of-three series with a trip to the College World Series hanging in the balance.

The two teams met in a regular season series at Founders Park from Apr. 20-22, a series South Carolina swept to vault to No. 3 in the country. The Gamecocks won the opener in run-rule fashion by a 13-3 score before taking the final two games 5-2 and 7-5. Last time the two teams met in Gainesville was the final weekend of the 2022 regular season, a series the Gators took two out of three games in just days before they also ended South Carolina’s season with a 2-1 win in the SEC Tournament.

But for the most part, the postseason history between the teams heavily skews in South Carolina’s favor.

Of course the most famous meeting between the teams came for the 2011 National Championship, when South Carolina swept Florida in two games to win the program’s second consecutive title. Less than a year later the teams were back on the field meeting in the opening game of the College World Series, and once again South Carolina pulled out a victory by a 4-3 count. The Gamecocks are 54-51 all-time against the Gators.

Dates, times and channel designations for the super regional will be revealed later in the week, but the series will either run Friday-Sunday or Saturday-Monday.

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