South Carolina baseball: Gamecocks to host regional at Founders Park

South Carolina baseball will host postseason play.

The South Carolina baseball team struggled towards the tail end of the regular season, dropping four of their last five SEC series. Their SEC Tournament showing was no better, with the Gamecocks being blown out by Alabama in the opening round, leading to an early exit. With the late season skid, it seemed less and less likely that the team would be able to host a regional to kick off postseason play. Once considered a top 16 national seed, the results from the second half of the season saw the Gamecocks drop to the two-seed line in most NCAA Tournament projections. In most cases, that would mean they’d be travelling to another site for regional action.

But this was not a typical year in college baseball, with decisions still being made to account for the COVID pandemic. One of those decisions was to announce a group of regional host contenders midseason, rather than waiting until the end of the year. This was done to prep sites for safety protocols, and ensure that venues were capable of holding a larger events during these tenuous times.

South Carolina submitted their bid and was chosen as one of those 20 host contenders, and despite falling to the two-seed, the NCAA named Founders Park as one of the final 16 regional host venues over the weekend. This was due to their being placed in a regional bracket with Old Dominion, who earned the field’s No. 11 overall seed. The Monarchs, who won the Conference USA title, did not submit a bid to host back in May, so even though they come in as the regional’s top seed, they aren’t able to hold the event on their home field.

The regional field consists of Old Dominion, South Carolina, Virginia, and Jacksonville. ODU won 42 games this year, and just took home the C-USA tournament championship. The Monarchs didn’t face the Gamecocks in 2021, but they did take down East Carolina, Charlotte, and Louisiana Tech this season, all of whom rank in the top 25.

South Carolina will open regional play against ACC foe Virginia, who went 29-23 this season to land a three-seed in Columbia. The Cavaliers were teetering on the bubble heading into selection time, but the team reeled off seven wins in their final nine conference games to secure an at-large bid.

The fourth and final seed went to Jacksonville, who won the ASUN conference title. They earned a bid despite posting a 16-32 regular season record, and will face top-seeded Old Dominion on Friday night. Though they don’t have the same tournament resumes as the at-large bids, the Dolphins did show the ability to knock off top competition, taking down both Florida and Florida State throughout the year.

Check out the full regional bracket below.

Fri. June 7th:

• Game 1 – No. 2 South Carolina v. No. 3 Virginia (12 PM)
• Game 2 – No. 1 Old Dominion v. No. 4 Jacksonville (7 PM)

Sat. June 8th:

• Game 3 – Game 1 loser v. Game 2 loser (elimination game)
• Game 4 – Game 1 winner v. Game 2 winner

Sun. June 9th:

• Game 5 – Game 3 loser v. Game 4 loser (elimination game)
• Game 6 – Game 4 winner v. Game 5 winner

Mon. June 10th:

• Game 7 – Game 6 winner v. Game 6 loser (if necessary, elimination game)

The Columbia regional will get underway this Friday, with the Gamecocks and Cavaliers kicking things off at noon. The winner of this regional will be paired with the winner of the TCU bracket, which includes the Horned Frogs, Oregon State, McNeese State, and Dallas Baptist.