Coastal Carolina baseball is back in Omaha. Why can’t Clemson, USC get there?
Time for a blind college baseball résumé test of Palmetto State programs.
Program A has won 393 games and made the NCAA tournament eight times in the last 10 seasons, including six times as a regional host. It is 13-16 (.448) in the postseason, with one super regional and zero College World Series appearances.
Program B has won 346 games and made the NCAA tournament five times in the last 10 seasons, including three times as a regional host. It is 13-11 (.541) in postseason games, with three super regionals and zero College World Series appearances.
Program C has won 407 games and made the NCAA tournament eight times in the last 10 seasons, three times as a host. It is 27-15 (.642) in the postseason and has two super regionals, two College World Series appearances and one national title.
Sit with those numbers for a moment. Who’s been the best program?
Got an answer? OK, good. Now, let’s reveal the contenders …
Program A is Clemson. Program B is South Carolina. Program C is Coastal Carolina.
And with their names stripped away, the trend is even more noticeable.
The Chanticleers may not measure up historically with Clemson and two-time national champion USC, but they’ve been just as good (if not flat-out better) than their in-state rivals over the last decade.
Coastal’s impressive run of postseason success — and Clemson and South Carolina’s lack thereof — became a talking point across the state last weekend after the Chants swept No. 4 national seed Auburn on the road in the super regional round.
That gives Coastal Carolina two Omaha appearances and one national title since the last time Clemson (2010) or South Carolina (2012) even made it to Omaha.
The red-hot Chanticleers, in their first year under coach Kevin Schnall, carried a nation-best 23-game winning streak into the College World Series. Coastal Carolina (53-11) opened against Arizona on Friday and has the third-best betting odds to win the entire event, behind only Arkansas and LSU.
Meanwhile, the Tigers and Gamecocks are sitting at home (again) after Clemson failed to advance out of its own regional and USC missed the postseason altogether.
So, how has Coastal Carolina lapped its in-state neighbors? Here’s a closer look.
Clemson and USC’s postseason woes
After the Chants swept Auburn, Schnall had a message for the country.
“This is no Cinderella,” he said. “I wanna make sure that’s known.”
In a lot of ways, he’s right. Since 2000, only eight programs have made the NCAA regional round more often than Coastal Carolina (21 appearances). In that same time frame, Coastal has the country’s sixth-best winning percentage and ninth-most wins.
In other words, longtime coach Gary Gilmore (1996-2024) had Coastal Carolina rolling years before it became one of college baseball’s most improbable champs.
“We’re one of the most premier, most successful college baseball programs in the entire country,” said Schnall, who replaced Gilmore after he retired last summer.
The only problem: As Coastal was building up to that point, Clemson and South Carolina were already there. The Tigers and the Gamecocks — already rich in baseball history and fan support from decades of winning seasons and NCAA appearances — made 10 combined College World Series appearances from 2000-10.
The Chants were legit, but nobody would’ve deemed them the state’s best baseball program in 2010, when South Carolina swept Coastal in the Myrtle Beach Super Regional en route to its first national championship. Clemson also reached Omaha, playing the Gamecocks in the semis. USC went on to win its second title in 2011.
Since then, things have gotten … interesting.
Tanner retired in 2012 and South Carolina has cycled through three head coaches since (Chad Holbrook, Mark Kingston, Paul Mainieri). Clemson fired Leggett in 2015 and replaced him with Monte Lee, who was fired in 2022 and replaced with Erik Bakich. Coastal won the 2016 national championship and has been a consistent postseason winner under Gilmore and Schnall.
How consistent? Consider these additional, decade-long trends:
From 2015-25, excluding the 2020 season canceled because of COVID-19, Coastal Carolina has made as many NCAA regionals as Clemson (eight) and three more than South Carolina, which has missed the field five times in 10 years
By virtue of sweeping Auburn on June 6-7, Coastal Carolina’s 2025 team has recorded more super regional wins (two) in one postseason than Clemson and South Carolina have combined to win in 13 total NCAA appearances since 2015 (one)
Clemson has won five total NCAA games in its last five seasons (2021-25). South Carolina has won five total NCAA games in its last six seasons (2019-25, excluding 2020). Coastal Carolina has won five postseason games since May 31.
Coastal has 27 postseason wins since 2015. Clemson and USC have 26 combined.
Is Coastal the best baseball program in the state of SC?
Mark Etheridge of D1Baseball remembers walking into Auburn’s press box last weekend and wondering how Coastal would match up with the No. 4 Tigers.
His takeaway after the No. 13 national seed Chanticleers swept Auburn 2-0?
“People are going to look at the conference affiliation and maybe underestimate their talent,” Etheridge said. “But watching the SEC and ACC all year, Coastal’s talent fits right in. You don’t notice a difference.”
That’s been the case whether Coastal is burning through the Sun Belt Conference (they won the league’s regular season and tournament titles) or sweeping Clemson 2-0 in midweek games or gutting it out in wild, weather-delayed postseason games.
Entering the College World Series, Coastal Carolina leads the country in wins (53) and winning percentage (.828). Junior catcher Caden Bodine is viewed as future first-round MLB Draft pick, and Coastal’s pitching staff — coincidentally led by former South Carolina pitching coach Matt Williams — has the nation’s No. 2 team ERA.
It’s a reminder that great pitching and timely hitting can carry a team a long way, even in an era where the rich are supposedly getting richer. With the transfer portal and NIL dollars at their disposal, power conference programs have even more tools to acquire elite baseball talent.
Yet: No. 1 overall seed Vanderbilt, No. 2 Texas and four other top 12 national seeds — including Clemson — failed to advance out of their home regionals. Murray State became only the fourth four seed to reach the College World Series. And the CWS has zero repeat teams among the eight-team field for the first time since 1957.
Etheridge said the value of a more homegrown roster like Coastal’s — generally speaking, a group of players who’ve played multiple seasons together and stayed put despite opportunities to leave for other schools — has been evident.
Continuity can go a long way toward building culture, and that’s not always the case “if it’s just one-year mercenaries coming in as a pit stop on their way to pro ball.”
As for Coastal’s case as the best program in the state: Etheridge has long believed that some of a team’s postseason success and failure is random. Health. Bracket luck. A ball falling fail or foul. Countless factors can swing an elimination game.
But the current narratives surrounding each program aren’t hard to find, and another long College World Series run would only add to the Chants’ bragging rights.
“Coastal’s had the formula for postseason success lately,” Etheridge said. “And that’s something that is the measure of programs, of leagues, of coaches and to some extent players. ... Right now, Coastal is making a bid as the best program in the state.”
This story was originally published June 12, 2025 at 2:59 PM.
