South Carolina baseball makes 2018 debut in major top-25 polls

For the first time in more than a year, South Carolina has cracked the top 25 of two of college baseball's major polls.

Baseball America unveiled its rankings Monday morning, and the Gamecocks, winners of four consecutive SEC series, checked in at No. 23. D1Baseball.com released its poll soon after, with USC at No. 25.

The last time either outlet ranked USC was in April 2017.

Coach Mark Kingston's squad has been ranked this year by Collegiate Baseball, but that poll is not recognized on the NCAA's website. Last week, after Carolina (30-21, 15-12 SEC) took a home series against Ole Miss, Aaron Fitt of D1Baseball.com told readers in a live chat that the team was "right on the cusp" of being ranked, and "certainly you can expect them to be in the Top 25 if they win another series next week."

With a walk-off home run from Carlos Cortes this past Sunday, USC clinched its fourth consecutive SEC series win, the first time it has done that since 2012. It also boosted its RPI to 40 — all four of those series wins came against teams in the top 50 of RPI.

Also over the weekend, South Carolina officially clinched a berth in the SEC tournament and secured its 22nd consecutive season of at least 30 wins.

As for the main prize, the NCAA Tournament, D1Baseball and Baseball America already had projected Carolina to make the 64-team field last week, as a No. 2 seed in Clemson's regional, but Kingston acknowledged Sunday that this latest series win was crucial to the team's postseason hopes.

D1Baseball Top 25

This story was originally published May 14, 2018 at 9:17 AM with the headline "South Carolina baseball makes 2018 debut in major top-25 polls."