On the bubble: Gamecocks, SEC foes fighting for postseason

UNLIKE PREVIOUS SEASONS at the SEC baseball tournament, South Carolina arrives in Hoover, Ala., in a must-win situation.

Usually, the Gamecocks show up for a few tune-up games with no pressure on them because they’ve played well enough in the regular season to ensure an NCAA tournament berth. But without a victory in the single-elimination first round Tuesday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, USC assuredly will not earn a 16th straight bid to the national tournament.

This team posted a 32-24 overall record and a 13-17 mark in the SEC, the first losing conference record since 1997, numbers that earned it a No. 10 seed in the conference tournament.

“We certainly need to win some games, that’s for sure. We certainly can’t lose tomorrow, I don’t believe, to be in the (NCAA) conversation,” USC coach Chad Holbrook said.

But Holbrook notes that many of the eight teams playing in the four games Tuesday are sitting on the same bubble.

“We’re not on an island by ourselves,” he said.

One of them is USC’s opponent in the day’s second game: No. 7 seed Missouri, which went 29-26 overall and 15-15 in the SEC, including a series victory over the Gamecocks. The Tigers have a No. 57 RPI in the NCAA official rankings while South Carolina is No. 60.

“We have to keep winning. We all feel that way,” Missouri coach Tim Jamieson said. “We don’t want to leave it up to the committee to make decisions. We’re in the same boat. We feel like we’ve got to make some noise down here. We don’t want to assume anything.”

The chase for the at-large spots in the 64-team field will be hotly contested across the board for those teams that don’t win their conference’s automatic bid. The Gamecocks have to build a case if they can’t win the five games needed to claim the title.

“Looking across the country, it’s not just the SEC but other leagues as well. It seems like a lot of people have similar resumes,” Holbrook said. “Some might have a harder strength of schedule, some might have more quality wins, some might have a higher RPI. Who knows what the (NCAA) committee is going to lean on the heaviest?”

With both Baseball America and D1baseball.com projecting the SEC to receive eight bids to the NCAA tournament, the first day of the conference tournament could be a season-ender for any number of teams.

Along with South Carolina and Missouri, Ole Miss (30-24, 15-14, No. 24 RPI), Kentucky (30-24, 14-15, No. 56 RPI), Auburn (34-22, 13-17, No. 23 RPI), and Alabama (30-26, 12-18, No. 50 RPI) all would like to make their way to the double-elimination round of play that begins Wednesday.

“We’ve certainly got to make a deep run to get in the (NCAA) conversation,” Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said. “You take it one game at a time. There’s been some magic here before in our program and in the tournament. Some things have to happen and fall the right way for us.”

Kentucky coach Gary Henderson echoed those sentiments.

“We are like the majority of the clubs playing Tuesday. We need to win,” Henderson.

Holbrook likes that 12 clubs get a chance to play for the tournament championship, even if four of them will be gone after the first day. He’s not afraid of a do-or-die situation after the way his team played over the final two weekends, when the Gamecocks split six games with conference champion LSU (46-9, 21-8, No. 5 RPI) and Texas A&M (43-10, 18-10, No. 7 RPI).

“Our team’s confidence is in a good spot based on our opponents that we played the last couple of weekends and how we played,” Holbrook said. “Hopefully, we can play our best baseball in the postseason and, obviously, that starts against Missouri.”