Mark Kingston never budged on Gamecocks hosting. The NCAA selection committee agreed

Throughout the last few weeks — as loss after loss mounted — South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston never wavered. Any time he fielded a question about USC’s postseason resume, he’d say the Gamecocks are positioned to host. The metrics are “screaming” for it, he’d say.

Even still, Kingston is human. With the way the Gamecocks (39-19) ended their season, losing 13 of 18 games, there was just enough room for doubt. At least a little bit.

The sixth-year USC coach was sitting in his Founders Park office Sunday night — just finished with a team workout — when the news flashed across Twitter that the Gamecocks would host. At that moment, he felt the stadium rumble beneath him. Players, still gathered in the locker room, released a cathartic roar.

“It was really cool,” Kingston said Monday from the team’s selection show watch party at Williams-Brice Stadium’s Cockaboose Club. “I’ll never forget that.”

Just more than a month ago, South Carolina seemed like national seed shoo-in. The Gamecocks ranked No. 3 in the country and had a gaudy 34-6 record after completing a home sweep of Florida. But saddled by a slew of injuries, the Gamecocks lost their next four SEC series and went 1-2 in the SEC Tournament, casting doubt on their chances to host.

USC just snuck in as the No. 15 seed of 16 hosts, and the Gamecocks have a tough draw.

Campbell (44-13) was part of the hosting discussion and is one of the better No. 2 seeds in the field, while No. 3 N.C. State (35-19) finished the season with a No. 24 RPI and presents a tough challenge in its own right. The Gamecocks will open play 7 p.m. Friday against Central Connecticut State (36-12), a game in which USC should be heavily favored.

All along, Kingston argued that USC’s metrics made hosting a “slam dunk,” and clearly the NCAA selection committee took a similar view. Kingston said multiple times he believed the committee should look at the totality of a team’s resume and not be swayed by USC’s last four weeks of the season. The Gamecocks finished No. 8 in the RPI and No. 4 in strength of schedule — both metrics that traditionally earn hosting bids.

The chair of the selection committee, Auburn athletic director John Cohen, echoed many of those same sentiments Monday as he explained why the committee selected USC as a host.

“You’re being judged on your overall body of work,” said Cohen, a longtime baseball coach at Mississippi State. “(USC has) eight wins against the top eight seeds in the tournament this year. You look at their strength of schedule.

“You look at the weekend they had against Florida. They sweep Florida. They take two of three from Clemson. You can’t discuss this field and who has a great opportunity to go deep into this tournament without discussing Clemson and Florida. And they win five of those six games. So that, along with a No. 8 RPI, I think it was the will of the committee to say it’s really hard not to have them in the top 16.”

Cohen also said the committee weighed the injuries USC faced in the last month of the season, saying the Gamecocks were one of the best teams in the entire country before dealing with injury issues. At one point, three-quarters of USC’s starting infield sat with injuries, and the pitching staff also lost Noah Hall, Will Sanders and Eli Jerzembeck.

Kingston said Monday that he anticipates Sanders pitching out of the bullpen for the Gamecocks during the regional, and the team’s position player group is the healthiest it’s been in weeks.

Talmadge LeCroy has settled back into third base, and Braylen Wimmer should be back to playing shortstop after serving as a designated hitter due to a hamstring injury. Kingston also said catcher Cole Messina (concussion protocol) is cleared to play, a major boost for the offense.

After losing 10-3 to LSU and getting one-hit by Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament, Kingston spoke about the importance of trying to get the team’s offensive “magic” back. Getting back to near full health is a start, but the Gamecocks also have work to do on cutting down strikeouts and situational hitting if they hope to make a postseason run. That back-to-basics approach began during Sunday night’s practice — a practice that ended in jubilation when the NCAA announced its 16 hosts.

Veteran pitcher James Hicks said he never doubted that the Gamecocks would host, trusting the confidence of his head coach. But with the way USC finished the season, the news of playing postseason baseball at Founders Park was sweet nonetheless.

“It helps so much playing in front of our fans at our park,” Hicks said. “You can’t beat it. It’s impossible to play bad when you’re playing in a packed-out Founders. That’s what we were hoping for, and we have worked hard all year for it. So we’re really excited.”

Columbia Regional Friday schedule

No. 2 Campbell (44-13) vs. No. 3 NC State (35-19), 1 p.m., ACCN

No. 1 South Carolina (39-19) vs. No. 4 Central Conn. St. (36-12), 7 p.m., ESPN+