South Carolina baseball to take on LSU with a former Gamecock playing shortstop

South Carolina entered the SEC Tournament as the No. 10 seed. It wasn’t a guarantee the Gamecocks would win a game. Two seemed like a fairy tale — heck, they’d only won two or more games in Hoover once in 17 years.

Yet somehow, South Carolina used a dominant relief outing by Chris Veach to beat Alabama on Tuesday. The Gamecocks were propelled to a victory over Arkansas on Wednesday, thanks to a pair of Cole Messina home runs, starting 2-0 in the SEC Tournament for the first time since they won the whole thing .... 20 years ago (2004).

Which brings us a bizarre winner’s bracket matchup: 10-seed South Carolina vs. 11-seed LSU.

It’s the first time the two squads have met this year, which means it’ll be the first time Michael Braswell III will face his old team.

Braswell, the junior LSU shortstop, began his career at South Carolina in 2022 as a two-way player who mostly played the field for South Carolina but had a few appearances as a pitcher. He started all but one game for the Gamecocks that year, earning a spot on the All-SEC Freshman Team as USC’s everyday shortstop.

In 2023, though, South Carolina started Braylon Wimmer at shortstop instead of Braswell. He took very few at-bats to start the year and even asked coach Mark Kingston if he could move back to being a pitcher. But then just about every Gamecocks infielder suffered injuries. Suddenly, Braswell became a utility man for the Gamecocks, playing second base, third and shortstop.

He started 37 games last season, hitting .255 with 39 hits, 8 doubles and 40 strikeouts.

After the season, though, Braswell entered the transfer portal, writing on X: “Dear USC, Thank You for all the memories for me and my family for these last 2 years. I will ALWAYS be grateful for all the opportunities you have given me.”

He told reporters a few months later that he wanted to be the “everyday shortstop” and didn’t think he’d have that opportunity at South Carolina.

Braswell said that he thought his market would be some mid-major schools. Instead, LSU coach Jay Johnson picked up the phone and told Braswell he liked his game and could develop him as a hitter. Braswell started crying, according to one report, accepting the chance to play for the defending national champs.

“I thought he was originally recruiting me for depth,” Braswell told NOLA.com. “I was like ‘Well, OK, you’re an elite caliber program and my stats wouldn’t really say that I’m like a guy that transfers here, right?’ ”

“I knew I had it in myself, but I didn’t know that other coaches and other people saw what I could be,” he added.

It’s all come to fruition. As LSU’s starting shortstop this season, Braswell has turned into a new man at the plate, hitting over .300 with far more extra-base hits and runs scored than he had at South Carolina with fewer strikeouts.

On Wednesday, in LSU’s 11-0 run-rule victory over Kentucky, Braswell led off for the Tigers and hit the third pitch of the morning over the fence. After the game, Johnson praised his leadoff hitter.

”I think Michael has had a terrific year offensively for us. I’m really proud of him. We made a lot of adjustments when he transferred here.” Johnson said Wednesday. “We brought him here basically because I just liked the way that he played. Like, that was the whole impetus of it.”

Around 5:30 p.m. Thursday, in a winner’s bracket game that seemed impossible a few days ago, the first batter of the contest will likely be Braswell, who somewhat surprisingly left Columbia only to find a spot that fit him.