Latest NCAA projections have South Carolina baseball heading to ACC country

The state of North Carolina projects to have at least three regionals in the NCAA baseball tournament.

And that's where the latest projections from D1Baseball have South Carolina headed.

The Monday field, just ahead of the SEC tournament, has South Carolina headed to Raleigh and N.C. State's regional. In recent weeks, the projected landing spot has been Clemson or Duke.

Ray Tanner's old school is fifth in the D1Rankings, No. 15 in the RPI and projected as a No. 14 national seed. D1 has USC facing No. 3 seed Illinois (50th in RPI) in the opening round, while the Wolfpack draw Campbell.

The Gamecocks are 32-22 on the season and went 17-13 in the SEC after taking two of three from Texas A&M. Coach Mark Kingston said he thinks his team is comfortably in the field and should be looking to improve seeding if it advances in the SEC tournament.

USC tournament résumé

Record: 32-22, 17-13 SEC

Standings: Fifth in SEC, third in SEC East division

Rankings: No. 22 in Baseball America, No. 23 in D1Baseball.com

RPI: 34

Best wins: Home sweep of LSU (RPI 44), road series win against Vanderbilt (RPI 29), home series win against Ole Miss (RPI 9), home series win against Missouri (RPI 38), road series win against Texas A&M (RPI 20)

Worst losses: Loss to Presbyterian (RPI 276), loss to Furman (RPI 140), loss to The Citadel (RPI 236), one home loss in series to Charleston Southern (RPI 251), one home loss in series to VMI (RPI 166)

This story was originally published May 21, 2018 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Latest NCAA projections have South Carolina baseball heading to ACC country."