Sweep of LSU puts South Carolina back in contention for NCAA tournament, experts say

What a difference a weekend can make.

Last Thursday, it seemed South Carolina baseball was fighting just to keep itself in the SEC tournament field. As for making the NCAA tournament, well, that seemed extraordinarily unlikely after the Gamecocks dropped to 20-17 with a loss to Presbyterian.

Three consecutive wins over then-No. 19 LSU later, and USC is 9-9 in conference play and one game back of second place in the SEC East. An at-large berth into the field of 64 is not quite the pipe dream it once was.

D1Baseball's Kendall Rogers and Aaron Fitt both tweeted as much after South Carolina rallied from a 6-0 deficit on Sunday. They were joined by SEC Network analyst Chris Burke, who called coach Mark Kingston's squad a "scary team the rest of the way."

The Gamecocks also returned to the rankings, at least in one poll, as Collegiate Baseball pegged them as the No. 25 team in the country. They rose to No. 60 in RPI as well.

A large part of the team's resurgence isn't entirely unexpected — over the past week or so, USC has had four injured starters return to the lineup: seniors Justin Row and Madison Stokes, junior TJ Hopkins and freshman Noah Campbell.

"That's the offense that we haven't had all year because we've been scrambling to mix and match and play matchups and weren't at full strength," Kingston said Sunday. "We have good depth on our team, but those are some special players."

But don't go booking tickets to the postseason yet. South Carolina's remaining SEC schedule includes three ranked teams and two road series, and its midweek schedule includes a tough matchup with College of Charleston and former coach Chad Holbrook.

"This was a great weekend. We had a reality check on Tuesday, and we responded the way you want a team and a program to respond, now it's onto the next game," Kingston said.

NEXT

Who: South Carolina (23-17, 9-9 SEC) vs. Furman (19-21, 4-8 Southern)

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 24

Where: Fluor Field, Greenville, South Carolina

Watch: Streaming online on SoCon Digital Network

Listen: 107.5 FM

Probable pitchers: South Carolina — Fr. RHP Carmen Mlodzinski (1-4, 3.47 ERA); Furman — Jr. RHP Jake Crawford (1-1, 7.80 ERA)

This story was originally published April 23, 2018 at 9:36 PM with the headline "Sweep of LSU puts South Carolina back in contention for NCAA tournament, experts say."