South Carolina went on the road to open SEC play against Missouri. The Gamecocks won the first two games of the series but lost the last one. On Friday night Evan Beal pitched Carolina to a 4-1 victory. On Saturday the teams played a double header in anticipation of inclement Sunday weather. USC and Nolan Belcher won a pitcher's duel in the first game 2-0. In the second game there as no offense and Carolina fell 4-0.

Conventional wisdom dictates that winning an SEC road series is nothing to sneeze at, but this doesn't seem to be a very good Missouri team. They lost their two opening series against Southern Miss and Memphis. In all six of those games the Tigers gave up at least 5 runs. South Carolina didn't score 5 runs in any games this weekend.

The offense is becoming more of a concern. Most of the infield lineup is set, but the other positions vary as does the production. Dantlzer, 1B, Schrock, 2B, Vergason, 3B, and Pankake, SS, are set and are, for the most part, doing fine. On Saturday, the outfield was without Saiko and English, two starters, but the numbers were terrible. In the two games starting outfielders were 4 of 19 with 6 strikeouts and a walk. There were also no RBIs. no comments

If y’all have listened to the LOHD podcasts or read some of my other pieces on here, you will know I am an advocate of the social media known as twitter. If you aren’t on twitter yet, this is for you. If you started an account but never kept up with it, keep reading.

The value that twitter brings is that it is completely personalized. At first I was quite leery of twitter. My initial impression was celebrities and teeny boppers talking about lunch and friends and what not. Then I found out that people who write about college football also used the medium and my attitude changed completely.

The fact is news breaks on twitter. News is on twitter before it is on your favorite national news website. News is on twitter before you find it on the ESPN crawl. Way before you find it on the hometown newspapers website. Heck, twitter even has where players are drafted before the decision is announced on ESPN or the NFL Network. Certainly there is some less than solid sources that need to be sifted through, but the cats that know what is going on, break it on twitter.

On Sunday South Carolina dominated Clemson 8-0 to clinch the series against the Tigers for the 7th straight year.  Carolina also won in dominating fashion 6-0 on Friday night in Clemson but dropped the neutral site game on Saturday 6-3.

The Gamecocks shut out the Tigers twice in the series.  On Friday series MVP Jordan Montgomery dominated the Tiger bats.  He pitched 8 complete innings while only allowing three hits and striking out nine.  In the ninth Tyler Webb came in to dominate some more.  Webb had been called soft by a forgotten Tiger infielder a few seasons ago.  He was anything but on Friday night.  He faced three batters, threw 16 pitches and struck out the side.

A disappointing performance on Saturday was redeemed on Sunday.  Nolan Belcher, the fifth year senior, took the mound at Carolina Stadium.  Belcher had a breakout freshman year, and has been a role player since.  An injury took away one year, but even in the other two years he was never as impactful as he had been.  Apparently he aims to change that this year.  He won the Sunday starting role after a tight battle with freshman Jack Wynkoop.

This Sunday Belcher decimated Clemson.  He threw a complete game and shut them out.  He allowed three hits and struck out seven.  The orange and purple threatened a couple of times but Belcher found ways out of all his jams.

At this point Carolina's dominance in the rivalry is staggering.  They have won the season series each of the past 7 seasons.  Barring a meltdown in an unlikely rematch in the tournament, this senior class will have never lost a season series to Clemson.  The class before them can say the same thing.  And the class before them and the class before them.  

South Carolina has won 20 of the last 27 games in the series.  In fact, the Tigers have only won the season series twice since 1999.  Ray Tanner had his way with the school from Pickens, and Chad Holbrook appears poised to continue that tradition.

Some think the major difference in the programs is their approach to the game.  In Ray Tanner's last years he became much more relaxed, and his players seemed to thrive in that environment.  In the other dugout there is Jack Leggett who often appears uptight and ill at ease.  His teams tend to play that way as well.  On Sunday Carolina's team could be found dancing in the dugout in between a couple of innings while the Tigers looked dour most of the afternoon.  Is that the difference in the rivalry?  I'm not sure, but as long as we keep dominating, I'm not sure I care.

The "Road to Omaha" truly begins in South Carolina this weekend as the Clemson Tigers (5-2) square off against the South Carolina Gamecocks (6-1) in a three-game series at three different sites this weekend. Game times are 6:30 PM on Friday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson, SC, 2:00 PM on Saturday at Fluor Field in Greenville, SC, and 3:00 PM on Sunday at Carolina Stadium in Columbia, SC.

The No. 7 Gamecocks have had the upper-hand in this rivalry of late as evidenced by South Carolina winning two of three regular season games last year and then two in the postseason. Also USC has won four games in a row at Carolina Stadium and eight games in a row in the series away from Tigertown. But it is a new year and a new baseball game, so here are some things to watch for:

In a case of "ours is better than yours," the University of South Carolina decided to "one-up" the rival Clemson Universtity. Well, that happens a lot in South Carolina as evidenced by USC beating Clemson in football four years in a row plus making them a second class citizen in collegiate baseball. Let's just say "back-to-back" national champs. Now it seems we are making improvements that outshine the "team from the Upstate."

Recently, the USC board of trustees gave approval to the funding for the new practice fields and indoor practice facility. So you be the judge, which is better...

The sorta famous "Howard's Rock" on the campus of Clemson University is supporting South Carolina's Jadeveon Clowney for Heisman in 2013....check out the pic below....

This Gamecocks blog is going to start a new little feature on here called "Outside the Roost" to shine the spotlight on some interesting things outside the Gamecocks sports world that we find interesting or we feel the need to poke some fun. With that being said, here is our first post...

One of our favorite movies is "The Hangover" and one of the best scenes out of the movie is the "tigers dream of" piano solo as we too have found ourselves thinking about what Tigers dream of. Here is the scene...

Here is the lyrics - "What do tigers dream of, when they take a little tiger snooze. Do they dream of mauling zebras, or Halle Berry in her catwoman suit. Don't you worry your pretty stripped head we're gonna get you back to Tyson and your cozy tiger bed."

Well, it seems they are crazy in their dreams as they honestly think that the Clemson Tigers are "America's Team." Silly Tigers.

Amazing, you just can not make this stuff up. Poor Clemson. I guess when you have a coach that pumps you full of smoke this is normal. The reality is they are not America's team. Heck, they have lost to South Carolina four years in a row. I get it, they beat LSU and now they think they are the best. I hope those dreams keep them warm at night as the 2013 college football season will be here before we know it and a reality check will once again be served.

A former member of the South Carolina basketball team, Johndre Jefferson, made headlines recently because of his elbow. Jefferson, after blocking a shot, caught former Texas forward Gary Johnson squarely in the forehead and fractured his skull.

First, who knew that Jefferson was hooping it up in the Israel Basketball Association for Elitzur Ramla. Well, getting passed that, it is good to hear that Johnson will make a full recovery.

South Carolina has opened their 2013 baseball season with a series win over Liberty.  The Gamecocks won the first game 4-3 and the second 8-7.  They lost a 7 inning third game 3-2.  Taking the series two games to one wasn't what most Gamecocks hoped for.  In fact for many it was disappointing.  USC fans have gotten used to a very high level of success the last three years, and outscoring Liberty by one run total over the weekend is not a high level of success.

There's nothing wrong with Liberty.  They should be a trournament team, and it helps if you think about them being on par with Coastal Carolina, which they probably are.  Still, a close series against a Big South opponent was a bit of a let down.

The University of South Carolina ran a Super Bowl ad that was seen just on a regional media viewing area. If you did not see it, here it is:

For me...I like it. What about you?