Postseason projections for No. 3 South Carolina baseball with four SEC series remaining

One year after the South Carolina baseball team missed the playoffs, Mark Kingston’s squad is poised to be one of the top seeds in June’s NCAA tournament.

Just one month of the regular-season games — and four SEC weekend series — remain for the No. 3 Gamecocks, who are coming off an eye-opening sweep of a top 5 Florida team in Columbia last weekend.

As USC prepares to host Auburn this weekend, starting Friday at 7 p.m., the Gamecocks find themselves slotted in as a No. 3 national seed in NCAA tournament projections by both D1Baseball and Baseball America. As one of the top eight national seeds, USC would host a regional at Founders Park and then host a super regional — should the Gamecocks advance to that round of the postseason.

Barring a collapse down the stretch, South Carolina (34-6, 13-4 SEC) is a safe bet for a national seed given the team’s current metrics.

Heading into the weekend, the Gamecocks rank No. 1 nationally in RPI and No. 6 in strength of schedule — two of the most important metrics for the NCAA’s selection committee. The sweep of then-No. 3 Florida and a split against No. 1 LSU are two glowing bullet points on USC’s resume, as is their 16-5 record against top 50 teams in the RPI.

The Gamecocks’ 13-4 conference record leads the SEC, although there could be some movement in the coming weeks. Though facing Auburn (23-17-1, 7-11) this weekend isn’t quite as daunting as playing the Gators, challenges remain for USC.

After Auburn, the Gamecocks will hit the road for back-to-back series against top 25 teams, starting at No. 15 Kentucky and followed by a road series at No. 7 Arkansas. The Gamecocks will finish their regular season at home against Tennessee, a team that opened the year highly ranked but slipped due to struggles in conference play.

As it stands, D1Baseball projects Campbell to be the No. 2 seed in the Columbia Regional, followed by N.C. State, then Army. Baseball America projects Texas as that No. 2 seed, followed by Wofford and Alabama State.

Those projections are bound to fluctuate throughout the final month of the season, but generally the selection committee tries to keep teams close to their geographical home when constructing the field of 64.

USC-Auburn baseball weekend schedule

(Weather permitting)

Friday: vs. Auburn, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)

Saturday: vs. Auburn, 4 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)

Sunday: vs. Auburn, 12 p.m. (SEC Network)