South Carolina slides in latest tournament projections
South Carolina is firmly on the hosting bubble and the latest bracketology reflects that.
The Gamecocks are still projected to host in one outlet’s projections then slid out of the hosting conversation in another.
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Baseball America, which has consistently held the Gamecocks as a top 16 seed, still has South Carolina in that conversation.
South Carolina slid to the No. 14 overall seed in the site’s projections, down one overall seed from Thursday’s projections.
D1Baseball, which had the Gamecocks as the No. 15 overall seed Thursday morning, moved South Carolina out of the host spot and into a No. 2 seed in a regional as of Friday morning.
Baseball America projects the South Carolina regional to include No. 2-seeded Duke playing Oregon then rounding things out with fourth-seeded Santa Clara.
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It’s paired here with the No. 3 overall seed Arkansas, which is projected to host Oklahoma State, Oral Roberts and Saint Louis in the tournament.
D1Baseball has South Carolina as the No. 2 seed in the Boston College regional, who is projected as the No. 14 overall seed in the tournament.
The Gamecocks here are projected to open the tournament against Northeastern in the first round with Boston College and Loyola Marymount the other two teams in the pod.
It’s also paired with the Fayetteville regional that includes the Razorbacks, Dallas Baptist, Oklahoma and Saint Louis.
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South Carolina is still in the mix but the Gamecocks’ hosting chances did take a blow with an anemic 5-0 loss to Texas A&M Thursday in the SEC Tournament.
The Gamecocks moved down one spot in the RPI to No. 7 as of Friday morning with the No. 4 overall strength of schedule.
They are 22-18 in Quad I and Quad II games with just one loss outside of the top two quadrants.
But the final month of the season has seen the Gamecocks go from a guaranteed host to now very much on the fringe.
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South Carolina finished the regular season losing 13 of its final 18 games and four straight SEC series to end the regular season.
The Gamecocks helped their case by beating Georgia in the SEC Tournament but lost their next two games with just three runs and six hits over 18 innings against LSU and Texas A&M.
A win in either of those two games would almost assuredly help the Gamecocks and the resume, but that didn’t happen.
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The 16 host sites will be announced Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. with the full field coming out Monday at noon.
