Another NCAA tournament projection has added South Carolina baseball to the field

Another major national media outlet thinks South Carolina baseball is trending towards the NCAA tournament.

A day after D1Baseball.com included USC in its 64-team projection for the first time, Baseball America followed suit Wednesday, predicting the Gamecocks will be a No. 3 seed in a regional hosted by North Carolina State. The other teams in the hypothetical region are East Carolina and Campbell.

A recent sweep of LSU and road series win over Vanderbilt have resurrected South Carolina's postseason hopes from a few short weeks ago, when reaching the SEC tournament seemed challenging enough for coach Mark Kingston's squad.

Those recent results have led to a big leap in RPI for USC. At their lowest point, the Gamecocks were 141st in the nation in the crucial index. Now, they are 48th.

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

Rankings: Unranked by D1Baseball.com, NCBWA, Baseball America, USA Today coaches poll, 48th in RPI

Conference standings: Tied for fifth in SEC, 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 2, 2018 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Another NCAA tournament projection has added South Carolina baseball to the field."