South Carolina baseball's magic number for the NCAA tournament? For Mark Kingston?

At 28-20, 13-11 in the SEC, South Carolina baseball is projected by most major analysts to make the NCAA tournament next month.

But with seven games remaining in the regular season, starting this weekend with a series against SEC East division cellar-dweller Missouri, the Gamecocks don't have a specific number of games they think they need to win to remain on the right side of the NCAA bubble.

"It's hard to say. Every year is different," coach Mark Kingston said Thursday. "Some years it probably takes 16 to 17 (SEC wins) to get in, some years it can be a little bit less than that. I don't want to fall into that trap of giving our guys a number and then all of a sudden you reach it, and on any given year with bubble teams ... sometimes bubbles get burst. So you just try to win as many as you can. At this point, I don't think we're at a position to set a number."

In 2017, eight SEC teams made the tourney, all with at least 15 conference wins. With two series left against Mizzou and Texas A&M, South Carolina seems to be in good position to match or exceed that number, but frustrating midweek losses, such as the team's one-hit effort in a 9-0 defeat to College of Charleston on Wednesday, have held Carolina back from essentially locking up an at-large berth.

In midweek games this season, Kingston's club has a record of 7-5, including puzzling losses to Furman, The Citadel and Presbyterian. That last defeat, however sparked an 8-2 turnaround, and Kingston said he's hopeful the Charleston result will produce a similar effect, even if he can't pinpoint exactly why midweek games have proved such a challenge this year.

"Every time we play poorly in the midweek, we bounce back, so we just need to repeat that," Kingston said. "That's the bottom-line. For whatever reason, we haven't played well in midweek games; but for a while now, we've played well on the weekends, and we just need to repeat that. Having the experience to draw on definitely helps you to do it again."

The Gamecocks will attempt to do so against a Mizzou team that ranks near the bottom of the SEC in batting average and slugging but is near the top in key pitching metrics.

"Their pitching is really good and has been really good the majority of the year," Kingston said. "They'll go two lefties on Friday and Saturday, two very quality lefties, and their TBD ... the guy they've been pitching on Sundays is a big-time power righty. My guess is that they're going to try to use him Friday or Saturday if they need to help win a game. If not, he would start on Sunday. But they are a very pitching dominant team. Offense has some good hitters as well, but they generally win because they have good pitching."

Injury update

Junior center fielder TJ Hopkins, who has hit .339, usually in the leadoff spot for Carolina, remains day-to-day with a back injury he sustained Sunday against Ole Miss. He missed the College of Charleston game, and Kingston did not sound particularly hopeful when asked about his status for Friday's series opener.

"He's limited very much so right now, and we'll see what he's able to do whether it's any offense, any defense, any running (at practice)," Kingston said. "It's just a day-to-day basis, and we'll have to work very closely with our trainers to make sure we're not doing anything that's going to set him back."

In his place, the Gamecocks' usual right fielder, junior Jacob Olson, shifted to center field on Wednesday, while sophomore Riley Hogan got the start in right. Moving forward, however, Kingston suggested that freshman Noah Campbell, who has mostly occupied the designated hitter spot or second base, might move to right field to ensure he gets at-bats.

"Absolutely, that's on the table. With (senior Madison) Stokes having to DH some, that's affected the at-bats that Noah has gotten, so we've got to be creative," Kingston said. "We've been creative a lot this year by necessity both pitching-wise and on offense and defense, so that may be the next step we have to take to be creative, to get our best hitters in there."

Rotation unchanged

Kingston also confirmed Thursday he will stick with the current makeup of his weekend rotation, starting with freshman Logan Chapman on Friday, even as he said his staff needs to improve — USC starters have stayed in the game five innings or more just once in the past seven games.

"At the end of the day, if you look across the country, ERAs of NCAA tournament teams and Omaha teams, those ERAs are in the 2s and the 3s," Kingston said. "So that's where we need to get to, one way or another. We need to get to the point where the guys we're rolling out there have ERAs in the 2s and 3s."

Of the seven Gamecocks hurlers with more than 30 innings pitched, none have an ERA lower than 4.22.

This story was originally published May 10, 2018 at 4:32 PM with the headline "South Carolina baseball's magic number for the NCAA tournament? For Mark Kingston?."