July 2, 2011

Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina head coach Ray Tanner has been named National Coach of The Year by “Collegiate Baseball” newspaper. One of the most respected coaches in college baseball, Tanner led the Gamecocks to their second consecutive national championship at the recent College World Series. This is the third time in Tanner’s career that he has earned National Coach of the Year honors as he also picked up the accolade in 2000 from Baseball America as well as in 2010 by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.

Tanner, who just completed his 15th season at South Carolina and 24th overall in NCAA Division I baseball, has led the Gamecocks to the College World Series five times including in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2010. Tanner owns a 689-296 record at South Carolina with a .699 winning percentage, second highest all-time among SEC coaches. His career record is 1,084-469-3 for a winning percentage of .698.

Under Tanner’s leadership, South Carolina owns the longest current streak of NCAA Regional appearances among the 12 SEC schools with 12 straight trips dating back to the 2000 season. In that span, Carolina has nine NCAA Super Regional appearances (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011).

South Carolina has now won a record 16 consecutive NCAA tournament games (2010-11), breaking the all-time record of 15 shared with Texas (1983-84). In addition, the Gamecocks have now won their last 11 College World Series games dating back to last season, an all-time record. South Carolina broke the mark of 10 consecutive CWS wins they shared with both Southern California (1972-74) and Louisiana St. (1996-98).

South Carolina finished the CWS with a microscopic 0.88 ERA in five games, the fourth lowest team ERA in the event’s history and the lowest since 1972 (Arizona St., 0.68). Only five teams have ever finished the CWS with a team ERA under 1.00. South Carolina’s team ERA is the lowest by a CWS champion since California in 1957 (0.60).