Final tournament projections with South Carolina baseball hosting
South Carolina is officially hosting a regional, and that shakes up the final tournament projections heading into Monday’s selection show.
The Gamecocks are now going to host, but both national outlets have a tough conference champion heading to Founders Park for the regional.
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D1Baseball has South Carolina as the No. 15 overall seed playing No. 4 seed in the regional Penn in the opening game of the regional.
The Gamecocks swept Penn earlier this year with two close games, including one dramatic comeback, to beat the Quakers in the second week of the year.
The regional is also projected to include Campbell as the No. 2 seed playing NC State in the other game of the day. The Camels were a fringe regional host as Big South tournament champions, 44-13 overall and No. 13 in the RPI.
The South Carolina regional is paired here with No. 2 overall seed Florida, which is projected to host (in order of seed) Oregon, Northeastern and Florida A&M.
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Baseball America also has South Carolina as the No. 15 overall seed paired once again with Florida at No. 2.
Three of the four teams in the Gamecocks’ regional are the same with Baseball America projecting Campbell and NC State as the No. 2 and 3 seeds, respectively.
Baseball America, though, has Santa Clara coming to Founders Park to play South Carolina in the opening round of the tournament.
The Broncos won the WCC this season and are 35-18 overall and No. 81 in the RPI. Baseball America has Indiana, Cal State Fullerton and Florida A&M in the Gainesville regional.
The Gamecocks will get their full draw at noon Monday when the entire field of 64 gets announced on ESPN2.
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South Carolina earned just its third regional since 2016.
The Gamecocks will likely be a No. 1 seed in a regional for the first time in the Mark Kingston era and for the first time since that 2016 season that finished with South Carolina hosting a Super Regional.
South Carolina doesn’t know what time it will play. But the Gamecocks’ first game will likely be Friday night against the No. 4 seed in a regional before advancing to play Saturday.
The game time Saturday will be dictated by the results of Friday’s games.
South Carolina earned its hosting spot thanks to strong computer numbers with a top 10 RPI, strength of schedule and a large number of Quad I and Quad II wins.
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The Gamecocks were one of the best teams in the country through the first 40 games of the year before sputtering down the stretch and winning just five of their final 18 games.
A new season, though, starts Friday.
