Gamecocks avoid sweep at Texas A&M, but postseason hopes are waning
The South Carolina baseball team salvaged the final game of a road series at Texas A&M on Sunday, but time is running out for the Gamecocks to salvage a chance at the postseason.
Just two series remain in the regular season for the Gamecocks, who moved to 24-22 (10-14 SEC) with a 9-4 win over the No. 13 Aggies. The win comes one day after USC squandered a 9-0 lead and lost 13-12 in walkoff fashion.
USC’s bats came to play on Sunday, as veterans Josiah Sightler, Andrew Eyster and Braylen Wimmer all homered, and catcher Colin Burgess hit a grand slam in support of starter Will Sanders. After the Aggies rallied for three runs in the seventh, Kevin Madden responded with a two-run bomb in the eighth.
A series win in College Station could’ve been a massive jolt to USC’s postseason hopes, especially coming off a sweep of Alabama the weekend before, but the Gamecocks are No. 65 in the RPI, and neither D1 Baseball nor Baseball America project USC to make the NCAA tournament. The Gamecocks will need to win five of their last six SEC games just to finish .500 in the conference.
And it’s not just an NCAA regional that’s at stake. If the Gamecocks struggle down the stretch, they could be in danger of missing the SEC tournament, which starts May 24 in Hoover, Alabama.
The SEC tournament includes 12 of the conference’s 14 teams, with both division winners and 10 at-large selections seeded by conference winning percentage. With the win Sunday, the Gamecocks (10-14) are still within range to earn the invite to Hoover, but there’s little separation between USC and Alabama (10-14), Ole Miss (10-14), Kentucky (9-15), Mississippi State (9-15) and Missouri (7-17). Next weekend’s USC series against the Wildcats in Columbia could be pivotal for that race.
The Gamecocks last missed the conference tournament in 1996, in June Raines’ final year as head coach before Ray Tanner took over.
Even if the Gamecocks make the SEC tournament, they’ll still likely require a deep run — if not the title — in Hoover to earn an NCAA regional berth. Series wins against Vanderbilt and Texas and a sweep of Alabama are boons to USC’s resume, but the Gamecocks also have glaring blemishes, including midweek losses to Presbyterian and The Citadel, a sweep against rival Clemson and a 3-12 record on the road.
Overall, USC has played the No. 13 strongest schedule and has gone 10-15 against Quadrant I opponents. But even the series wins against the Longhorns and the Commodores have lost some of their luster after both teams slipped out of national Top 25 rankings down the stretch.
USC baseball remaining schedule
This story was originally published May 8, 2022 at 5:54 PM.
