Gamecocks baseball makes appearance in NCAA tournament projection

South Carolina baseball has been on a roll as of late, winning six of its last seven to improve to 26-18, 11-10 in the SEC. And national media outlets are starting to take notice.

Analysts from D1Baseball.com included USC in the site's latest projections of the NCAA tournament field as a No. 3 seed in a regional hosted by East Carolina in Greenville, North Carolina. The other teams in the hypothetical region are Stetson and UNC Greensboro.

A week ago, the Gamecocks were in D1Baseball's "Last Four Out" of the 64-team field. Meanwhile, at Baseball America, Mark Kingston's squad was not included in any capacity.

D1Baseball's projections include 11 SEC teams in the field, which would be a conference record since the tourney expanded to 64 teams in 1999.

A sweep of LSU and a road series win over Vanderbilt has helped South Carolina make a big leap in RPI. At its lowest point, USC was 141st in the nation in the crucial index. Now, the Gamecocks are 45th.

And they'll have a big opportunity to take that number even higher this weekend when they host Ole Miss for a three-game set. The Rebels are ranked as high as No. 4 in one poll, with an RPI of 7.

South Carolina's tournament résumé

Record: 26-18, 11-10 SEC

Conference standings: Tied for fifth in SEC, tied for third in East division

Best wins: Sweep of then-No. 19 LSU, road series win over then-No. 17 Vanderbilt, sweep of Tennessee (RPI of 65)

Worst losses: Swept by unranked Georgia on road, midweek losses to Furman, The Citadel, Presbyterian (all outside top 100 in RPI)

Key games left: Home series vs. No. 4/7 Ole Miss, road series vs. No. 21/18 Texas A&M

This story was originally published May 1, 2018 at 6:22 PM with the headline "Gamecocks baseball makes appearance in NCAA tournament projection."