South Carolina Baseball: Gamecocks ranked among country's best in first preseason poll

South Carolina baseball fans have high hopes for their favorite team this spring. After USC put together its best season since at least 2018, the Gamecocks kept much of their offensive talent and added some big-time names in the transfer portal to bolster both the lineup and the pitching staff.

The season starts in just over a month as Founders Park will welcome the Miami (OH) Redhawks for a February 16th-18th series. With first pitch approaching, more and more college baseball content is being published, including some outlets' preseason polls.

Perfect Game, one of the country's best publications, released their preseason top-25 on Friday, and the Gamecocks made the cut.

In fact, South Carolina baseball was inside Perfect Game's top-15 teams in America, slotting in at the #13 spot in the rankings.

The Gamecocks are one of eight SEC teams in the poll (all in the top-15), and their 13th-ranking is the 7th-best among those Southeastern Conference clubs. Future SEC team Texas is also in the poll, coming in at #8. The rival Clemson Tigers are ranked by Perfect Game, as well, sitting in the #21 spot.

As always, Mark Kingston's team has a difficult schedule ahead of them. The Gamecocks play 19 games against teams in Perfect Game's preseason poll as they play their annual rivalry series against Clemson, SEC matchups against Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee, and the annual mid-week border rivalry with North Carolina.

The entire Perfect Game preseason top-25 can be seen below:

1. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
2. Arkansas Razorbacks
3. LSU Tigers
4. Florida Gators
5. TCU Horned Frogs
6. Vanderbilt Commodores
7. Texas A&M Aggies
8. Texas Longhorns
9. Oregon State Beavers
10. Virginia Cavaliers
11. Tennessee Volunteers
12. Stanford Cardinal
13. South Carolina Gamecocks
14. North Carolina Tar Heels
15. Auburn Tigers
16. Iowa Hawkeyes
17. East Carolina Pirates
18. UCLA Bruins
19. NC State Wolfpack
20. Kansas State Wildcats
21. Clemson Tigers
22. Oklahoma State Cowboys
23. Duke Blue Devils
24. UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos
25. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers