USC rained out, pitching situation unclear

South Carolina's Tuesday night matchup with USC Upstate was cancelled due to severe weather after a lengthy delay. The game will not be made up and because it was only in the second inning does not count.

South Carolina was hoping to get a strong showing from starting pitcher Colby Holmes, who was scheduled to pitch just an inning in his first start since missing the last three weekends due to a freak arm injury suffered in practice.

The plan was to throw Holmes for a quick inning, see how he responded physically the next day, and then likely put him back in his game-three starter's role -- a spot he's performed very well in -- this weekend against LSU.

But Holmes gave up three hits and surrendered three earned runs, also hitting a batter, and recorded just two outs.

Staff ace Michael Roth will certainly start game-one of the LSU series and it now appears likely that Forrest Koumas will start one of the other games. Which one of those games is less clear.

Head coach Ray Tanner and pitching coach Jerry Meyers will have to choose rather to go with the freshman Jordan Montgomery, who hasn't pitched as well in recent starts, or to stick with their veteran Holmes despite the rough outing Tuesday.

If they go with Montgomery then he would likely pitch game-two with Koumas throwing game-three. If they go with Holmes then Koumas would likely throw game-two.

Tanner will meet with the media Wednesday at 11:30 in the morning and should provide some insight to his thought process heading into the series.

Going into the final weekend of the regular season, South Carolina finds itself just a half-game behind Kentucky in the race for the SEC Championship. LSU is just a game back from the Wildcats and a half-game back from the Gamecocks. Kentucky travels to Mississippi State this weekend.

This Weekend's Schedule:
5/17/12 - LSU - 7 p.m. (FS South/FS Carolinas)
5/18/12 - LSU - 7 p.m. (Cox Sports TV)
5/19/12 - LSU - 1 p.m. (ESPNU)

All times are Eastern