Gamecocks want to outperform preseason expectations

If any coach or player at South Carolina needed a reminder of what the expectations were in Columbia all they have to do is look at the right field wall.

There they would see the list of NCAA Tournament bids, complete with the 13 trips to Super Regionals, 11 College World Series appearances and the two national championship logos in centerfield.

So, even as the Gamecocks are getting a lot of preseason accolades heading into 2021, they want more.

“The expectation here is to win a national championship. If our guys are getting too excited about being ranked in the top 20 right now they’re not in the right headspace,” Mark Kingston said. “We make sure guys know what the expectation is here. We want to go to Omaha and we want to win a national championship. That’s what I want our guys to feel like. I want them to feel like 18 is underrated for us right now.”

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The Gamecocks are heading into the season ranked No. 18 in both D1Baseball and Baseball America’s top 25, the first time they’ve earned a preseason ranking since 2017.

That year they started No. 5 nationally and ultimately missed the postseason, which is why this year’s team isn’t putting much stock in the number next to its name.

“That’s not the end goal to be the number 18 team in the country. The number 18 team doesn’t finish in Omaha and doesn’t finish with a ring on their finger,” Brannon Jordan said. “We haven’t proven anything to anyone yet. We still have to go out there and win ballgames.”

The optimism around this iteration of South Carolina baseball is because the Gamecocks return two top 200 prospects in Thomas Farr and Jordan on the weekend, another highly regarded player in Brennan Milone and veteran offensive pieces like Wes Clarke and Brady Allen on the offensive side.

That, mixed with a top 10 recruiting class, lends itself to preseason buzz but it’s not the ultimate goal.

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“We want to be there standing at the end in Omaha,” Milone said. “That’s something we keep in the back of our minds. It’s cool to have all those accolades, but at the end of the day you block it out and focus on getting better every day. At the end of all that hopefully we’ll be the last ones standing. That’s the goal.”

Players on this year’s team understand all of these preseason accolades don’t mean much if, like the 2017 team, they don’t go out and win games.

“We still have to compete out there and show we are worthy enough to be a top-ranked team in the country,” Julian Bosnic said. “Without winning it doesn’t mean anything. We can be ranked wherever we are but if we don’t win it means nothing. Our ultimate goal is to get to Omaha and win it.”

This is easily the most buzz around the Gamecock program in terms of expectations since Kingston took over in 2018, projected as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament by Baseball America.

Heading into the season, players know what’s being said externally but have higher hopes than finishing 18th in the country and don’t really talk about preseason accolades.

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“That’s one of the advantages of having a really old team,” Farr said. “It’s really cool to be ranked nationally but at the end of the day you have to go out and play. If you don’t go out and play like a nationally ranked team then it doesn’t matter if you are one. If you’re unranked, go play like you’re a ranked team. It’s one of those things where it’s cool to post on Instagram but you just have to go play.”