'Yeah, we're pissed': Why another SEC series win left sour taste for Gamecocks

A few weeks ago, the prospect of South Carolina baseball taking two out of three games against No. 4 Ole Miss and pushing the Rebels to the brink in the third contest would have seemed too good to be true to most Gamecock fans.

But after exactly that happened this Sunday, USC's players and coaches were far from jubilant. In fact, they were feeling disappointed — among other emotions.

"I think every game you lose, you should be pissed. Yeah, we're pissed. It's good that we won two out of three, but we were that close to sweeping a top-five team. So it doesn't feel good," senior catcher Hunter Taylor said Sunday.

With three consecutive SEC series wins, Carolina has played its way back into the NCAA tournament conversation and resurrected its season after a lackluster start. But with that success comes high expectations, ones that the Gamecocks are intent on holding themselves to, especially as the season winds down and the importance of each game magnifies.

"Each game is important. That's why we take this game to heart," senior Madison Stokes said. "Obviously we won Friday and Saturday, but winning the series, we weren't complacent with it. We're just going to find a way to get better."

Even coach Mark Kingston, who has repeated a mantra all season of not getting too high or too low, emphasized that if South Carolina is going to take a one-day-at-a-time approach that so many programs preach, that means being frustrated with a result that might not seem so terrible given the big picture.

"Just right now, disappointed that we didn't win today. Because it's always about today. Friday and Saturday were great, but we came out here to win today. Today's just very disappointing," he said.

Still, Kingston also acknowledged that with positive results against top programs like LSU, Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, the Gamecocks are trending in the right direction.

"We're getting a lot better. And that's what you ask from your team, just get better as the season goes on. Keep working hard, deal with the ups and downs of the SEC season," he said. "I just told my team that when a top-five team comes into your park and is happy to win one game, it must mean we're getting pretty good."

SEC tournament status

If the season were to end today, South Carolina would be the No. 5 overall seed in the SEC tournament. The Gamecocks are 13-11 in conference play, behind No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Georgia and No. 3 Arkansas and tied with Ole Miss and Auburn. Because the three are not common opponents, the tiebreaker goes to the team with the best record against the top overall seed that all three have played. That's Arkansas, with Ole Miss at 2-1, South Carolina at 1-2 and Auburn at 0-3.

With the fifth seed, South Carolina would have to play a first-round single-elimination game against the No. 12 seed, which currently is projected to be Mississippi State.

However, the Gamecocks still have two more series left in league play, against Missouri, who is 30-18 overall but just 9-15 in SEC play, and Texas A&M, who is 34-14 overall and 12-12 in the conference.

NCAA tournament hopes

The latest projections from D1Baseball.com and Baseball America both have USC as a No. 3 seed in an NCAA region, one hosted by East Carolina, the other by North Carolina State.

Those were from last week, but the good news for Gamecock fans is that they are likely to stay the same or improve after this weekend's series. Entering Sunday's game, South Carolina's RPI had improved from 49th entering the series to 32nd. That number dropped to No. 42 after the weekend, but Kingston's squad is on the right side of the NCAA bubble, at least for now.

For reference, in mid-March, South Carolina's RPI was 120.

What's more, the upcoming midweek game Wednesday will offer USC another big opportunity to improve its RPI, going against College of Charleston and former coach Chad Holbrook. The Cougars entered this weekend 62nd in RPI and own a 32-16 record with a sweep of Georgia on their resume.

SEC standings

SEC East

SEC West

Team	Conf.	Overall
Arkansas	14-10	33-15
Ole Miss	13-11	36-13
Auburn	13-11	34-14
Texas A&M	12-12	34-14
LSU	12-12	28-20
Miss St	11-13	26-22
Alabama	6-18	24-25

NEXT

Who: South Carolina (28-19, 13-11 SEC) vs. College of Charleston (32-16, 14-7 CAA)

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Spirit Communications Park, Columbia

Watch: TBA

Listen: 107.5 FM

Probable pitchers: South Carolina — Fr. RHP Carmen Mlodzinski (2-4, 4.02 ERA); College of Charleston — TBA

This story was originally published May 7, 2018 at 10:12 AM with the headline "'Yeah, we're pissed': Why another SEC series win left sour taste for Gamecocks."