South Carolina named one of 20 potential NCAA baseball regional hosts
South Carolina baseball’s push to host an NCAA tournament regional cleared its first major hurdle Friday, as the NCAA announced its list of 20 potential host sites for the 2021 tourney on Friday, with Founders Park making the cut.
Because of protocols put in place for the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA released its preliminary list of predetermined host sites several weeks ahead of the tournament’s start to allow for those sites to prepare. The final list of 16 regional hosts will be announced Sunday, May 30, following the conclusion of conference tournaments.
Also as a result of COVID-19 protocols, host sites will be limited to 50% capacity at most, regardless of local regulations.
The 20 host sites revealed Friday were all included in the latest D1Baseball.com top 25 rankings and are all in the top 28 of the RPI. Of the 20, South Carolina is 13th highest in RPI but the lowest in the rankings.
The Gamecocks have not hosted an NCAA regional since 2016, which they won before falling to Oklahoma State in a Super Regional. Should they do so this year, it would be a first for coach Mark Kingston.
But USC still has two more SEC series to play, as well as the conference tournament. Carolina is on the road this weekend against Kentucky, a team considered to be on the NCAA bubble, before finishing the regular season at home against another potential host site, No. 4 Tennessee.
Before Friday’s announcement, Kingston had publicly lobbied for his team to be a potential host, noting after the Gamecocks’ RPI and strength of schedule after their series finale last weekend against Mississippi State.
“The RPI has been the most important metric for a long, long time,” Kingston said. “And it’s hard to ignore a (No.) 12 RPI for a team that has played our schedule, which in my opinion is the hardest schedule of any team all year. If you look at high-end opponents and the volume of those high-end opponents, nobody’s played a harder schedule than us and still has a pretty damn good record that we have right now.”
South Carolina’s RPI dipped three spots after a midweek loss to Clemson, but the Gamecocks still boast the ninth-toughest strength of schedule in the country. Already, they have played six top-25 RPI teams and fellow potential host sites — Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Florida, Arkansas, Texas.
No team in the country has played more games against top-25 RPI opponents than Carolina. In those contests, however, USC has a losing record of 8-13. Kingston is also hoping to rally his team after losing three consecutive SEC series.
The Gamecocks will look to get off to a good start against Kentucky at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
PREDETERMINED NCAA REGIONAL SITES
*Announced by the NCAA on Friday, May 14. Final 16 hosts announced May 30.
Arizona
Arkansas
Charlotte
East Carolina
Florida
Gonzaga
Louisiana Tech
Mississippi State
Notre Dame
Ole Miss
Oregon
Pittsburgh
Stanford
South Carolina
Southern Mississippi
TCU
Tennessee
Texas
Texas Tech
Vanderbilt
This story was originally published May 14, 2021 at 12:12 PM.
