South Carolina Baseball: How to watch the NCAA Tournament Selection Show
By Kevin Miller
The South Carolina baseball team has had a wild season. The Gamecocks got off to an extremely fast start that exceeded all preseason expectations as the YardCocks began the year an astounding 30-4 before losing their first series of the year on the road against Vanderbilt. From there, Carolina only secured one series win (a sweep over top-10 Florida) but lost their final four three-game sets in SEC play as injuries and poor play derailed the Gamecock baseball train.
A once-obvious top-8 national seed that would host a regional and super regional, the Gamecocks are now on the “bubble” as to whether or not they will even be able to host a regional as a top-16 squad. Over the last two weeks, the Gamecocks have been “in,” the Gamecocks have been “out,” and as of Thursday afternoon, D1Baseball had South Carolina baseball as one of the final 16 host sites at 15th overall. That changed on Saturday when they were projected as a 2-seed.
The Gamecocks are on the bubble along with fellow SEC programs Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, and Auburn and with other big-time program names like Miami, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, East Carolina, North Carolina, and Coastal Carolina. Coastal, Auburn, Alabama, and Kentucky are generally viewed as safer bets to host than the Gamecocks.
With the top-8 slots virtually decided, and those four teams (Coastal, Auburn, Alabama, and Kentucky) most likely seeded somewhere between 9 and 16, South Carolina baseball is likely vying for one of four available slots against other regional host bubble teams such as Tennessee, East Carolina, Miami, Oklahoma State, North Carolina, Oregon State, Duke, Campbell, Southern Miss, Boston College, UConn, Texas, and Indiana State.
The ultimate fate of the Gamecocks’ seeding is a mystery. Based on resume alone, Carolina belongs as a top-16 seed. However, they are playing some of the worst recent baseball of all the teams vying to host and have some serious injuries that have kept (and will continue to keep) key players out of game action.
South Carolina baseball fans should not be surprised either way if they hear their favorite team chosen as a host site or as a 2-seed that has to travel to a different regional.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be broadcast on ESPN2 at noon on Monday, May 29th. The Memorial Day Selection Show will reveal the 64-team NCAA Tournament field and the seeding. The top-16 teams will host regionals, and the top-8 teams will also host super regionals if they advance past the first round.
If a super regional host team loses in the regional round, the highest-remaining regional champion in the super regional matchup will host the super regional best-of-three series.