Baseball: Gamecocks in an unexpected position

USC faces final weekend at the Sarge uncertain of the SEC and NCAA future

By SETH EMERSON - semerson@thestate.com

As recently as last week, no one with the South Carolina baseball team thought Saturday would be the last time the Gamecocks would play at Sarge Frye Field. That was supposed to be in two weeks, or maybe three.

Events in Arkansas apparently have dictated otherwise. After being swept for a third time, not only USC is unlikely to host an NCAA tournament regional, it is fighting to for a berth in next week’s SEC tournament.

It’s an unexpected position.

“We definitely had higher expectations than where we are right now,” junior shortstop Reese Havens said Wednesday. “But we’re in the situation we put ourselves in. So we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to get out of it.”

And what would that require? In all likelihood, two wins in the series against Tennessee would put USC in the SEC tournament.

The Gamecocks (35-18 overall, 13-14 in the SEC) are in ninth place in the league, and eight teams qualify for the tournament in Hoover, Ala. USC can make the tournament in the following scenarios:

• By sweeping Tennessee

• Two victories against Tennessee virtually would guarantee USC a spot, because Kentucky and Florida (both 14-13 in the SEC) play each other, and one of them will lose twice (barring a rainout). USC owns the tiebreaker over both teams.

• If USC beats Tennessee once, it can make the tournament if either Kentucky or Florida sweeps its series. If that does not happen, Alabama and Mississippi (14-13) or Arkansas (13-13-1) would have to be swept.

South Carolina’s spot in the NCAA tournament seems more assured. It is ranked No. 20 in the Ratings Percentage Index, according to boydsworld.com, and there is plenty of precedent for an SEC team to make the NCAAs after missing the league tournament — it happened four consecutive years before last year.

Baseball America projects the Gamecocks as a No. 2 seed, playing at Florida State. But the magazine’s national editor, John Manuel, said USC should be worried if it gets swept by Tennessee. And hosting an NCAA regional appears to be a stretch, barring a run to the SEC tournament championship.

“It’s tough to see how they would,” Manuel said.

USC coach Ray Tanner seems to agree. Asked if he thought this was the last weekend at the Sarge, he said yes, unless “we went on an incredible roll.”

“It’s not all that surprising to me. I didn’t think we were going to have a team that would win 47 or 48 games,” Tanner said. “I knew we had some shortcomings. I knew we had some marquee players. ... We haven’t been real good at the bottom of the order. And our pitching staff has been very good, to me, but we lost an integral part of our pitching staff (closer Curtis Johnson) who would have helped a three- or four-game swing at least.”

But as third baseman James Darnell pointed out, all is not lost.

“The year’s wide open,” he said. “That’s why you look at it at the end and maybe say, ‘OK, it’s not the best year if we don’t make it to Omaha.’ But it’s all right there in our reach. We just have to keep playing hard.”

Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.