Dec. 22, 2008
Columbia, S.C. –
The University of South Carolina finished the 2008 baseball season ranked No. 6 in the nation in average attendance per the official report by the NCAA released last week. South Carolina averaged a school record 4,758 fans for 34 contests with a total attendance of 161,761, also a school record, in the final season at Sarge Frye Field. The attendance jumped the Gamecocks four spots from last year’s ranking at No. 10. South Carolina is set to debut its new baseball facility in the 2009 season. The new facility will house 6,400 permanent seats with standing room only tickets raising the capacity to approximately 9,000.
Six of the 10 top attendance schools came from the Southeastern Conference with LSU leading the way with an average of 7,590 fans. Arkansas sit second in the nation with an average of 6,968, with Mississippi State third at 6,008, Ole Miss seventh with 4,712 and Alabama ninth at 4,454.
South Carolina is one of only five schools in the nation to have made seven NCAA Super Regional appearances over the last nine years (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007). In the previous nine seasons, Carolina owns the fifth highest total of wins in the country (428) and has won more SEC games than any team in the league (162). In addition, the Gamecocks have made nine consecutive postseason appearances, the longest current streak among the 12 SEC schools. South Carolina also has three College World Series trips (2002, 2003, 2004), two SEC championships (2000, 2002) and one SEC tournament title (2004) in that span.
