South Carolina baseball learns 2024 NCAA Tournament path, regional destination

South Carolina’s path to Omaha is now a little more clear.

The Gamecocks (36-23) will be a 2-seed in the Raleigh (NC) Regional of the NCAA Baseball Tournament and face James Madison (34-23) at 2 p.m. Friday in its opener. Host school N.C. State (33-20) faces Bryant (36-19) at 7 p.m. Friday.

No TV channels were set as of late Monday afternoon, but all games will stream on ESPN+. The Raleigh Regional is a double-elimination format and is matched up in the bracket with the Athens (Ga.) Regional, meaning the winners of each will face off next weekend in the super regional round.

It’ll be a postseason rematch of sorts. The Wolfpack went to Columbia year ago when the Gamecocks hosted a 2023 regional. USC won its lone game against N.C. State 6-3 on that weekend.

“We’re ready to play anybody, anywhere so we will head to Raleigh, a program that we respect a lot,” Gamecocks coach Mark Kingston said. “We saw them last year at this time, so it’s almost like a home-and-home regional. They came to us, now we’re going to them. Just very excited to start playing some NCAA postseason baseball.”

James Madison, USC’s first opponent, was one of the last four at-large teams to make the tournament, the NCAA selection committee revealed Monday. N.C. State is the tournament’s No. 10 overall seed.

“We will have to do a lot of homework on them,” Kingston said of James Madison. “We don’t get to play N.C. State unless we win game one and N.C. State has to win their game. We will focus on each of the three teams, and now it’s time to head to the office and start getting to work.”

The Gamecocks will head into the NCAA Tournament looking to do something that hasn’t been done since Kingston’s first season in Columbia: win a regional without hosting.

Back in 2018, South Carolina upset regional host East Carolina and advanced to a super regional, where it fell to Arkansas.

That was just one of two times the Gamecocks have advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since Kingston took over. The other came last year, when the Gamecocks hosted and won a regional, but had to travel south and face a Florida team that went on to be the national runner-up.

Perhaps helping South Carolina’s case is that it has no doubt been tested. The Gamecocks have played the fifth-hardest schedule in the country in a conference that got more teams into the NCAA tournament (11) than any other.

South Carolina was able to find some momentum in last week’s SEC Tournament that it should be able to carry into the NCAAs. That’s important considering they finished the regular season on a six-game losing skid, getting swept by Georgia and Tennessee.

The 10-seed heading into Hoover, the Gamecocks secured victories over Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky but lost twice to LSU, including an extra-innings defeat in the semifinals.

“I think we showed this past weekend, we showed the world how good we could be at our high end,” Kingston said. “We still have some things to clean up. Obviously, our defense was not great in the tournament, but everything else, I thought, was at a level that can get us as far as we want to go. If we play at the level we can defensively, pitch like we did this past week and swing the bats like we did against five great SEC teams this weekend, we can do some good things.”

South Carolina’s defense committed 12 errors in Hoover and loomed large in both games against LSU. But at least the Gamecocks have a healthy Cole Messina at their disposal. The junior catcher from Summerville was sensational last week, hitting four home runs and setting an SEC Tournament record with 16 RBIs.

Perhaps Messina will turn into the latest Gamecock hero en route to a trip to Omaha.

South Carolina, champions of college baseball in 2010 and 2011, is looking for its 12th appearance in the College World Series but its first since 2012 and first since then-head coach Ray Tanner transitioned to the Gamecocks’ athletic director.

Perhaps a pipe dream a week ago, South Carolina’s chances to still be playing baseball in two weeks looks much more realistic after what it did in Hoover.

“This team should have a lot of confidence because they’ve taken on more challenges than anybody in the country,” Kingston said. “We played 35 Quad 1 games, which is the most in the country. We’ve beaten just about everybody along the way. Almost everybody. There are still more challenges ahead.“

Gavin Casas update

Starting USC infielder Gavin Casas injured his right hand in Friday’s SEC Tournament win over Kentucky. The SEC Network reported on the game broadcast that Casas broke his hamate bone.

“No update but it’s not looking great,” Kingston said Monday. “We’re going to exhaust all avenues and see if there is a chance. But right now, it’s not looking that great.

“He was our starting third baseman so it’s a blow for us. It has to be next-man-up mentality. We’re more than a one-man team. It takes all these guys to win games. We will just have to support each other and pick each other up. There are other ways to win games than Gavin hitting that three-run home run the other days.”

Raleigh NCAA Regional schedule

Friday’s games

South Carolina (36-23) vs. James Madison (34-23), 2 p.m. (ESPN+)

N.C. State (33-20) vs. Bryant (36-19), 7 p.m. Friday (ESPN+)

Saturday’s games

Elimination game, noon (ESPN+)

Winner’s bracket game, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)

Sunday’s games

Elimination game, noon (ESPN+)

Winner’s bracket game, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)

Monday’s game

If necessary, TBD