With Tennessee taking down Belmont on Tuesday to complete the regular season's home schedule, the Vols have just three games left to complete before the postseason.

These matches will come in the form of a road trip to Columbia to face South Carolina.

With Tennessee sitting at 36-17 overall and a 14-13 in SEC play, the series will have major implications on the team's NCAA Tournament seeding.

Although the SEC Tournament will begin the following week, a good showing on the road against the Gamecocks may be enough to push the Vols into a top-16 seed and the opportunity of hosting a regional.

In their way is an extremely solid South Carolina team.

The Gamecocks sit at No. 13 in the D1Baseball rankings heading into the series. They've slid down the rankings recently but have shown the ability to beat elite opponents this season.

Tennessee coach Tony Vitello doesn't take them lightly.

"Every SEC game is weighted the same and you’d like to make progress as the year goes on and I can’t speak for where they’re at with everything," said Vitello. "They’ve had some really good wins. They go into Fayetteville and won a game which we were not able to."

Outside of seeding implications, the Vols will also be motivated to win their first road series of the year.

Currently, the team owns a 2-11 road record with their only wins coming over LSU and Georgia.

This inability to take a series on the road has haunted the team as the season progressed. However, despite a series loss in Athens two weekends ago, the team felt the effort and mentality were in the right place.

"I think there’s no beating around the bush, we need to go on the road and play better overall," said Vitello. "Or if you really want to look at it, I think we need to pick up where we left off with our trip down to Georgia and kind of replicate that same mentality and same effort and see where it gets us. Maybe pay attention to what are the one or two areas that all of us, including ourselves, can be a little bit better at over the course of the weekend."

With road woes present, what will make things even tougher is South Carolina's environment.

The program has a rich history and fans have packed out the stadium this season.

"They’re at home," said Vitello. "It’s a tough place to play. I’m sure they expect to hold court or hold serve there."

However, with classes finalized and exams over, the team will be able to focus solely on baseball.

Everyone will be done with school for the semester as their attention is turned to the series in front of them.

This should work as a positive with the team wrapping up the regular season and beginning the final stretch.

"Finals will be over for every one officially," said Vitello. "I’ve kind of jumped the gun a little bit but by the time we get on that bus, that will be the case. We’ll get in there and do our normal pre-series practice that each of the teams do. We’ll just start a day earlier and the best way to try and win a series is to compete in the first game."

For South Carolina, their best hitter comes in freshman Ethan Petry.

Despite playing in his first collegiate season, he has produced 21 home runs and 68 RBI while hitting at a .378 average.

Cole Messina is the only other hitter slugging over a .300 average.

On the mound, their most effective pitcher this season has come out of the bullpen. Eli Jerzembeck has started in just three of his 16 appearances. This has led to a 2.84 ERA and 0-1 record.

The Gamecocks have recently struggled with injuries hampering their success, though.

For Tennessee, it has now also run into the injury bug. Jared Dickey was injured on Saturday in the series against Kentucky.

Although he returned to the field, he was pinch-hit for in his next at-bat. He hasn't appeared in a game since.

However, Vitello doesn't rule out a possible return against South Carolina.

“Whether he’s able to play or not, it’ll probably be the hitting that comes first before the defense," said Vitello. "But I think there’s an opportunity where he could do something for us this weekend.”

The first match is set to begin at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday at Founders Park.

Andrew Lindsey will get the ball for the Vols and it will air on SEC Network+.

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