ATHENS, Ga. - In the middle of a pennant race, South Carolina got the worst possible news on Sunday. It would be different if it was a matter of winning enough to take the regular-season championship.

But the No. 4 Gamecocks may be hurt by something that they couldn't do anything about.

USC's rubber game with Georgia was cancelled due to rain on Sunday and will not be made up, due to SEC regulations. The game, which was always a longshot to take place anyway after the forecast called for heavy rain, was delayed from the original 2 p.m. start until 3 p.m., when the rain ceased. The radar showed another patch of rain moving toward Athens and the decision was made to call the game off.

"The forecast is not favorable to getting this game in," coach Ray Tanner said. "The umpires and (Georgia coach David) Perno and I looked at it and it looks like a difficult circumstance for us to get this game in. We thought we had an opportunity today but the radar's really discouraging. There's a lot of water in the outfield now."

The missed game won't be made up and as a result, throws the conference standings in a jumble. Kentucky continues to lead the SEC East at 18-9, a half-game above USC, with three games to play. LSU, which has already clinched the SEC West, was tied with USC at 17-9 coming into Sunday and if each team had won, there would have been a three-way tie for first place for the regular-season championship.

Now, the Wildcats (who moved their scheduled Sunday game to a Saturday doubleheader due to the threat of rain) have a half-game lead on the Gamecocks. LSU was playing on Sunday as well. While the regular-season championship and seeds for the SEC tournament are determined by winning percentage, not overall wins, USC may be left holding the empty bag if it finishes a half-game behind Kentucky or LSU at the end of the year.

A half-game caused by a game that it never got to play, when there was a clear opportunity to do so.

"I guess it's one of those things, if you're up a half or down a half, that's how it affects you," Tanner said. "You want to play them out. Kentucky played a doubleheader yesterday to avoid a rainout today. They got their games in, but we're going to be at least one short in the league now."

The weather forecast (on weather.com) on Friday showed a 70 to 80 percent chance of rain on Sunday. By rule, teams can appeal to the SEC to play a doubleheader if the percentage of rain is that high, which is what Kentucky did.

Georgia did not, citing a want to have its scheduled Senior Day on Sunday. When the forecast showed rain for Sunday, Perno expressed regret over the decision.

"We didn't consider that we wouldn't be able to find a two-hour window," Perno said. "There just wasn't enough time."

SEC regulations state that a team has a weekend to play three games, because the series can not carry over to Monday because the players would miss class. Even when school is out - as it currently is at USC and Georgia - the regulations do not change.

So when the game wasn't appealed to be made a doubleheader on Saturday, when one rain delay held the game up for 24 minutes but the weather was clear for the remainder of the evening, it forced it to be played on Sunday or else it wouldn't be played at all. The radar didn't show a break of clear weather, so the game wasn't played.

Tanner said that he would try to find a makeup non-conference game to play on Monday, which would enable him to play his full complement of 56 games, something that he has done every year since he was hired. "I don't know if I can get a game tomorrow, but I'm going to try," he said.

But the SEC standings are the question. USC can't make the missing game up, while everyone else in the conference will be able to. The Gamecocks (38-13, 17-9 SEC) will wait on the result of today's LSU game to figure out what they have to do to win the pennant, and then see if they will add an extra game before they host USC Upstate on Tuesday.

SEC STANDINGS

SEC East

Kentucky 18-9 41-11

South Carolina 17-9 38-13

Florida 15-11 37-14

Georgia 13-13 29-22

Vanderbilt 12-14 25-25

Tennessee 8-18 24-26

SEC West

*LSU 17-9 39-12

Mississippi State 13-13 31-19

Ole Miss 13-13 33-18

Arkansas 13-14 35-17

Auburn 12-15 28-23

Alabama 7-20 18-33

*Division champion

Sunday's games

Mississippi State at Florida

South Carolina at Georgia, cancelled

Vanderbilt at LSU

Tennessee at Ole Miss

Next week's series

Georgia at Alabama

Arkansas at Tennessee

Florida at Auburn

Kentucky at Mississippi State

LSU at South Carolina

Ole Miss at Vanderbilt

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