South Carolina exits SEC Tournament with NCAA hosting chances far from rock solid
Before heading to the SEC Tournament, South Carolina coach Mark Kingston was brimming with confidence about his team’s chances of hosting an NCAA regional, using terms like “slam dunk” and “no-brainer.”
The experts were a little less confident.
D1Baseball dropped the reeling Gamecocks from its top 25 and top 16 seeds prior to the SEC Tournament, and the prevailing sense was that USC had some work to do this week in Hoover.
USC started the tournament on a strong note with a blowout win over Georgia, but No. 10 seed Texas A&M dealt the No. 6 Gamecocks their second straight loss on Thursday, defeating USC 5-0 to send the Gamecocks back to Columbia.
Now, USC’s hosting fate is in the NCAA selection committee’s hands. And despite Kingston’s bullish spin on USC’s resume, there’s a chance the Gamecocks won’t hear their names called when the 16 regional hosts are announced Sunday night.
USC (39-19) has metrics that traditionally bode well for aspiring hosts. The Gamecocks rank No. 8 in RPI (dropping from No. 6), No. 3 in strength of schedule and have 10 wins against Quadrant 1 teams. A sweep of Florida and a series win over Clemson — both projected national seeds — are impressive resume plot points. USC also has a series win over an NCAA tournament-bound Penn team.
The issue is with how the Gamecocks finished the season, going 4-11 and losing four straight SEC series after their sweep of Florida at home. Injuries to three starting infielders and starting pitchers Noah Hall and Will Sanders didn’t help, but going a month without winning a series could draw red flags from the committee. Series wins are just as important as team’s overall record, if not more important. Outside of the Florida series, USC’s only conference series wins came against bottom-tier SEC teams Georgia, Missouri and Mississippi State.
Kingston understands that argument, but he’s said multiple times the committee should look at a team’s entire body of work and that all games should carry equal weight, regardless of when they were played.
“If I had watched us over the last few weeks, I would say, ‘Yeah, I understand why there are concerns,’ ” Kingston said Thursday. “So I’m not going to stand up here and bang the table for why I think we should be a host. I think the numbers speak for themselves very loudly.
“If all the games matter, if a game in March is as important as a game in April, as important in May, then yes, it’s pretty clear the metrics scream that we should be a host. If we’re not, I think that’s a penalty to the SEC, and it’s a penalty to us for saying that there’s too many teams that are good enough to host in the league, and we’re not going to reward all the teams that have earned it.”
Winning a game in Hoover is helpful, but overall it was an uninspiring SEC tournament run. Lacking pitching options due to injuries, the USC bullpen collapsed against LSU on Wednesday, and the Gamecock offense couldn’t break through against LSU’s bullpen — one of the few weaknesses for the Tigers.
Thursday’s elimination game against the Aggies was even worse. The Gamecocks only mustered one hit — an infield single by Will Tippett — against Aggies starter Justin Lamkin, who came into the game with an ERA north of 6.00. USC’s offense barely registered a pulse as the Texas A&M bats put up five runs against top USC starter Jack Mahoney. Even Tippett’s infield single was somewhat of a gift from the Aggie shortstop Hunter Haas, who made an athletic play to field the ball but airmailed the throw over the first baseman’s head.
Prior to Thursday’s game, D1Baseball released new projections with the Gamecocks slotted as the No. 15 seed and a regional host, with the caveat that “the Gamecocks need to beat A&M this morning to feel confident.” On Saturday, D1Baseball projected USC to a No. 2 seed in Coastal Carolina’s regional.
The Gamecocks have held steady as a hosting seed in Baseball America’s projected field of 64, but there’s bound to be movement in both projections as conference tournaments draw to a close around the country this weekend.
“We need to get all those guys that were really important to make us an elite team — we need to get them back going all at once, and we’ve got one last week to figure it out,” Kingston said. “Thank God we’re not sitting here trying to justify why we should get in the NCAA Tournament.
“We’re going to be there, and whether it’s at home or whether it’s on the road, we’ve got one week to figure it out and try to get those guys going, because when we’re going, then we can really get it done. Right now, we’re not going.”
NCAA selection show for baseball
Regional hosts announced: 8:30 p.m. Sunday
NCAA selection show: South Carolina will hold a selection show watch party at the Cookaboose Club in Williams-Brice Stadium on Monday. Doors open at 11:30 a.m., with the selection show starting at noon (ESPN2).
This story was originally published May 25, 2023 at 1:06 PM.
