Baseball Ranked No. 5 In The Nation By The NCBWA
Jan. 31, 2017
Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina is ranked No. 5 in the nation in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason Top 35 as announced on Tuesday afternoon. The Gamecocks begin the 2017 season on Friday, Feb. 17 hosting UNCG at Founders Park.
South Carolina is one of seventh SEC schools to be ranked. Also ranked is Florida (No. 2), LSU (No. 3), Vanderbilt (No. 6), Texas A&M (No. 20), Ole Miss (No. 27) and Mississippi State (No. 32).
South Carolina is a unanimous top five selection in preseason national rankings. The Gamecocks were also ranked No. 4 in the country by Collegiate Baseball, D1Baseball and in the USA Today coaches poll and No. 5 in the nation by Baseball America and Perfect Game.
RANK TEAM (2016 Record)
1 TCU (49-18)
2 Florida (52-16)
3 LSU (45-21)
4 Florida State (41-22)
5 South Carolina (46-18)
6 Vanderbilt (43-19)
7 Oregon State (35-19)
8 Louisville (50-14)
9 East Carolina (38-23-1)
10 NC State (38-22)
11 Coastal Carolina (55-18)
12 North Carolina (34-21)
13 Clemson (44-20)
14 Cal State Fullerton (36-23)
15 Louisiana-Lafayette (43-21)
16 Arizona (49-24)
17 Texas Tech (47-20)
18 Miami (Fla.) (50-14)
19 Virginia (38-22)
20 Texas A&M (49-16)
21 UCSB (43-20-1)
22 Oklahoma State (43-22)
23 Stanford (31-23)
24 Rice (38-24)
25 Maryland (30-27)
26 Washington (33-23)
27 Ole Miss (43-19)
28 Long Beach State (38-22)
29 Georgia Tech (38-25)
30 UNCW (41-19)
31 Dallas Baptist (44-19)
32 Mississippi State (44-18-1)
33 Tulane (41-21)
34 Houston (36-23)
35 Arizona State (36-23)
——————————————
South Carolina won the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship in 2010 and 2011 at the College World Series. South Carolina has made 11 College World Series appearances including six times in the last 15 years. In those 11 appearances, the Gamecocks are 32-20 for a .615 winning percentage, that is sixth-best among winning percentage leaders in CWS history. South Carolina is one of three schools in the nation to have reached at least 12 NCAA Super Regionals since 2000 and has the most NCAA Super Regional appearances of the 14 SEC schools since 2000. In addition, the Gamecocks own the second-highest win total in Division I baseball since 2000 (791-332 record) and more conference wins than any SEC team since 2000 (308-198 record). Recently, South Carolina is one of only four schools in the nation to host a NCAA Regional in six of the last seven years.
