South Carolina baseball selected to host NCAA Tournament regional

For the first time since 2016, South Carolina baseball will be the No. 1 seed in an NCAA Tournament regional.

Despite going just 5-13 in the final 18 games of the regular season, the NCAA selection committee tabbed the Gamecocks as one of 16 teams to host a regional when it released all of the host sites on Sunday night.

South Carolina technically hosted a regional in 2021 as a No. 2 seed after No. 1 seed Old Dominion was not allowed to host games in its ballpark due to COVID-19 guidelines, but the Gamecocks bowed out of the regional after one win.

The last time South Carolina actually earned a top-16 selection to host a regional was seven years ago now in the penultimate season of the Chad Holbrook era. South Carolina was the No. 10 overall seed that season and ended up winning the regional despite losing its opening game.

This marks the eighth time there has been a regional at Founders Park, and South Carolina has protected home turf in five of those seven years. Four straight seasons from 2010-2013 South Carolina hosted a regional and advanced along with the 2016 success, while the only times the program has been eliminated on regional weekend at Founders Park came in 2014 and 2021.

Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to its current format in 1999 the Gamecocks also hosted regionals five times in the pre-Founders Park era, advancing to a super regional all five times.

The Gamecocks are one of three teams in the state who will stay home next weekend as Clemson and Coastal Carolina also earned regional hosting bids.

The Gamecocks will learn which three teams are coming to Founders Park next weekend when the full bracket is revealed at noon ET Monday on ESPN.

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