![Southeastern Conference Logos in Hoover, Alabama Hyatt Regency Hotel. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr./Tuscaloosa News]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/284294f35fe5bcb4269629f9b83df7c6eac078ad6ac99bbaafaa9c7215a45eff.jpg "Southeastern Conference Logos in Hoover, Alabama Hyatt Regency Hotel. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr./Tuscaloosa News]")
On Thursday,
the SEC released its preseason coaches polls
. Every preseason, the league’s 14 coaches vote on the top team in each division, on the team most likely to win the conference regular season championship, and on the first and second teams of all-conference players. Coaches cannot vote for their own team or their own players.
In the team rankings, South Carolina unsurprisingly was selected to finish around the middle of the pack, both in the SEC East and in the SEC as a whole, coming in with the fourth-most votes in the East and eighth-most votes in the conference. The Tennessee Volunteers overwhelmingly were picked to win the Eastern Division, and the LSU Tigers were voted as the favorite in the West by an equally large margin. LSU was voted as the preseason’s most likely conference champion with 11 out of 14 first-place votes. Florida, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M split the remaining three votes.
Much more surprising for the Gamecocks was the fact they were completely shutout from the preseason All-SEC lists. No Gamecock was voted in on either the first or second team. Will Sanders, projected as a first-round pick by the official mlb.com predraft projections, was the most obvious snub. Sanders likely will follow in the footsteps of former Gamecock greats Carmen Mlodzinski and Clarke Schmidt as aces in garnet in black who go on to be drafted in the first round of the MLB Amateur Draft. Sanders is expected to have a big (and likely final) year in garnet pinstripes and was voted a preseason All-American by PerfectGame.org.
Another notable Gamecock who might have a beef with the preseason voting is INF Braylen Wimmer. Wimmer changed positions from 2B to SS this offseason but has multiple SEC Player of the Week awards in his past and is expected to lead South Carolina’s offense in 2023.
Head Coach Mark Kingston and his team added a large number of transfers this off-season. Transfers rarely make preseason award lists, but the Gamecocks have high hopes that several of them may compete to be on the award lists when it matters at the end of the season. Based on expectations in Columbia, the postseason awards lists might include transfer names such as 2B Will McGillis, 1B/OF Jacob Compton, or OF Caleb Denny.
With added consistency, INF Michael Braswell could find himself on a postseason award list, as well. The uber-talented sophomore took college baseball by storm early in his freshman 2022 campaign before struggling at the end of the year. A likely move from SS to 3B could ease some pressure off Braswell and allow him to bounce back in a big way.
The Gamecocks also boast several extremely talented bullpen arms, but each all-SEC team is limited to only one relief pitcher selection. James Hicks and Jackson Phipps return from injury in 2023, Cade Austin looks to build off of his freshman All-American season from a year ago, and incoming freshman Eli Jerzembeck steps on campus as one of the team’s most talented arms. Some of these bullpen pieces could see time as starters, as well.
In all, preseason awards do not amount to much. While it is surprising that a top-25 team in the nation does not have a single player (even their projected first-round pick) voted onto the preseason All-SEC teams, the Gamecocks and their fans will forget all about the snubs if they make it back to Omaha for the first time since 2012. A drought that long and a unit as talented as this year’s Gamecock team have South Carolina baseball fans itching to return to where they rightfully belong.