Carolina Stadium is new jewel of college baseball
Went to see the South Carolina baseball team's new home Saturday, and it's as good as any minor league park I've ever been in.Located not too far down from the Colonial Life Arena, the park has the look and feel of a Double-A or Triple-A stadium with the way the grandstands have been built and the scoreboard and huge wall in centerfield.
The field is one of th greenest I've ever watched a game on, and there's not a bad seat in the house, even the general admission seats.
As always, the smell of ballpark food emanates from nearly every portion of the park, and the smell of hotdogs and hamburgers constantly being grilled right beside the outfield bleacher seats is almost cruel.
The 9,000-seat stadium was pretty much packed for the LSU game, although there wasn't much to cheer about after the second inning.
LSU has some guys who can hit the ball, as evidenced by the team's three dingers in Saturday's 10-3 win. They were hitting them out constantly in batting practice (FYI - if you are in the outfield seats during batting practice, don't turn your back to the field. A man with what I'm sure must be a pretty big bruise on the back of his neck found that out the hard way).
As for the team, the Gamecocks have some great offensive talents in the lineups with Ebert and Mack and Dalles. Mack is an RBI machine and the rest of the team is pretty solid as well. Not too many easy outs.
Their downfall will be their pitching. Only Sam Dyson has been a solid starter for them, although they do have a few good options in the bullpen. But with a lot of ERAs 5.00 and over, they're going to have to score a lot of runs this season.
Well-worth the trip to Columbia, though. Can't think of a better college park in the country.
Posted by
on 03/22 at 03:03 PM
