I agree. I thought it was a good start for Widener too - his best effort on the season thus far. It would only help the pitching staff to have another solid starter develop throughout the season.

It's still early in the conference schedule, but USC's next 3 weekends will be against Tennessee (17-11, 3-6), UGA (17-13, 4-5), and Missouri (17-13, 2-7). The UT and Mizzou series are at home.

If the Gamecocks can go 7-2 against Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt with 2 of those series on the road, at the WORST I certainly expect them to go 7-2 against these next 3 SEC opponents. That would leave the team at 14-4 in SEC play on the season: I'm looking at the team going 20-10 in SEC play this season - if they can get to that point, then they will host the Regional and stand a strong chance of hosting the Supers too. Heck, teams have won the SEC regular season title before with 20-10 records.

By going 14-4, USC would only need to go 6-6 the rest of the way to get to that point. As I said, going 7-2 over the next 3 weekends is the worst I feel the team should do, as the competition over that stretch won't come close to what we've already faced. So the chance to even improve on those numbers is definitely there...

I say "expect", but of course I know "it's baseball" and nothing is etched in stone. For me it's more of a hopeful expectation: the potential is definitely there, so I'm hoping the team steps up and capitalizes on that potential.

I'm also hoping for that kind of capitalization, because as tough the first 3 weeks in SEC play was, after these next 3 series, we go from the frying pan into the fire, with consecutive series against Florida, Kentucky, Texas A&M, and lastly Alabama. We luck out on missing Miss State this season, which looks to be the top team in the West this year.

But after Vanderbilt who we've already played, the next 5 toughest SEC teams is Miss State (who we won't play), and then the final 4 opponents on our schedule.

So in other words, we need to strike while the iron is hot, and win as many of the next 9 SEC games as possible. Going 9-0 would certainly be helpful. Take it one game at a time....