South Carolina Gamecocks News: Columbia regional, football recruiting, Aliyah Boston, more
By Kevin Miller
The latest South Carolina Gamecocks News from the last week centers around the South Carolina baseball team’s domination of the Columbia regional.
After being controversially included as a top-16 regional host, the Gamecocks proved their worth with a dominating sweep of the Columbia regional.
Game 1 against Central Connecticut State was a 19-1 massacre. James Hicks pitched very well, and the bats were alive.
Saturday’s matchup with NC State was the most competitive of USC’s three regional games, but after a solid 6 innings from Jack Mahoney, the Gamecocks’ victory was never in doubt as they won 6-3.
The regional finale against Campbell was another bloodbath as the Gamecocks knocked off the Camels 16-7. Obviously, the offense was the story, but Will Sanders looked extremely sharp as he picked up a three-inning save with six strikeouts and zero runs allowed.
Carolina is now awaiting the results of the Gainesville regional to learn their super regional fate. If Florida beats Texas Tech on Monday, the Gamecocks will travel to Gainesville. If the Red Raiders pull off the upset, Texas Tech would travel to Columbia.
The baseball team had some future news break, as well.
Via the transfer portal, South Carolina baseball will be adding outfielder Austin Brinling from North Florida. The speedy Brinling was a leadoff hitter for the Ospreys and could fill that role for the Gamecocks in 2024. He has one year of eligibility remaining.
A former Gamecock baseball great got called up to the Show.
Outfielder TJ Hopkins was called up to the Cincinnati Reds. He recorded an RBI in his first career plate appearance against All-Star closer Devin Williams.
Football recruiting, as it always is, was a major storyline in the South Carolina Gamecocks News of the last week.
Dylan Stewart, the top overall prospect in the class of 2024, scheduled his official visit for the month of June. The talented EDGE rusher has previously called South Carolina his leader, and the Gamecocks are still in the thick of things along with programs like Ohio State, Georgia, Miami, and Alabama.
Kevin Kalonji, a junior college offensive lineman transfer, announced the Gamecocks as part of his top-3. The announcement was a bit of a surprise as he had only visited Maryland and Houston (the other teams in his top-3). After just a few days, he announced a commitment to Maryland.
4-star Texas receiver Parker Livingstone was on campus and had a great visit. He is choosing from South Carolina, Arkansas, LSU, Texas, and Texas A&M.
4-star defensive back Jalewis Solomon also had a good visit to Columbia. He is still viewed as a lean to Florida State by some, but the Gamecock coaching staff has put Carolina much closer to the ‘Noles with their efforts this weekend. In fact, Solomon called the Gamecocks one of his “leaders” after a great visit.
4-star running back Braylen Russell recently included South Carolina in his top-5 in a surprising announcement. He was on campus this weekend and had positive things to say, but it is unclear at this point what he is going to do.
A couple of former Gamecocks signed NFL deals.
Offensive lineman Brandon Shell signed with the Buffalo Bills. He is being brought in to compete for the right tackle job but seems most likely to settle into the swing tackle role, backing up both the left and right tackle spots.
Kicker Elliott Fry signed with his 11th NFL team last week when he inked a deal with the Denver Broncos. He is the only kicker on the current roster, but the Broncos are expected to bring in another kicker to compete with Fry.
South Carolina football knows the kick time for its first three games of the 2023 season.
The Gamecocks will take on North Carolina in Charlotte at 7:30 on ABC (College GameDay is very intrigued by this matchup).
Carolina will play Furman also at 7:30. The first home game of the year at Williams-Brice Stadium will air on SECNetwork+.
The South Carolina-Georgia matchup will be the SEC Game of the Week on CBS at 3:30.
The SEC officially announced the conference would play a custom 8-game schedule in 2024.
Unable to reach a mutually-beneficial agreement with ESPN/Disney, the SEC did not elect to add a ninth conference game to the schedule for when Oklahoma and Texas arrive in the league in 2024. Every team will play 8 games in-conference with certain (undisclosed) historic rivalries protected. Each team also must play an additional game against a Power-5 team out-of-conference.
The nine-game format still seems like an inevitability, but the SEC is showing that it is willing to wait until it is more financially lucrative for the conference before changing things.
In South Carolina Gamecocks News, there has been no indication about who Carolina will play in the custom format of the 2024 schedule. They won’t have long to wait, however, as the SEC will announce the full schedule for each team on June 14th in a primetime broadcast on SECNetwork.
Aliyah Boston is making WNBA history already.
The league’s Rookie of the Month for May started her career shooting 60% from the field each game with double-digit points for the first three games of her career. No other player has ever accomplished this feat in league history. She extended that mark to four games before fellow Gamecock #1-overall pick A’Ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces ended the run on Sunday.
Another former Gamecock basketball player signed a professional contract.
Guard Destiny Littleton played on the 2021-2022 national championship squad before transferring as a graduate student to Southern Cal for her final season. Last week, she signed a deal with the Saarlouis Royals of the German Damen Bundesliga, one of the top women’s leagues in Europe.