COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Gamecocks now know who they'll be up against as they begin their run in the NCAA baseball tournament.
The full field of 64 teams are announced Monday, May 31 at noon.
South Carolina will first host Virginia this Friday at 12 p.m on ESPN 2. The Gamecocks home turf, Founders Field at the University of South Carolina, has been chosen to be one of the 16 hosts for the NCAA Regional on June 4-7. This will be the first time since 2016, and the 18th time in the school's history, that USC has hosted a regional playoff.
Each regional field will host four teams playing in a double-elimination format. Here are the teams headed to play at Founders Field:
- Old Dominion (42-14) vs Jacksonville (16-32) - Friday 7 PM
- Virginia (29-23) vs South Carolina (33-21) - Friday 12 PM
2021 also marks the 33rd appearance for the Gamecocks in the NCAA Tournament. USC won back-to-back College World Series in 2010 and 2011.
The 16 regional sites, home teams (and their record) are listed here:
- Austin, Texas – Texas (42-15) - #2 National seed
- Columbia, South Carolina – South Carolina (33-21)
- Eugene, Oregon – Oregon (37-14)
- Fayetteville, Arkansas – Arkansas (46-10) -- #1 National seed
- Fort Worth, Texas - TCU (39-17, through 5/29/2021) - #6 National seed
- Gainesville, Florida – Florida (38-20)
- Greenville, North Carolina – East Carolina (41-15)
- Knoxville, Tennessee – Tennessee (45-16) -- #3 National seed
- Lubbock, Texas – Texas Tech (36-15) - #8 National seed
- Nashville, Tennessee – Vanderbilt (40-15) -- #4 National seed
- Oxford, Mississippi – Ole Miss (41-19)
- Ruston, Louisiana – Louisiana Tech (40-18)
- South Bend, Indiana – Notre Dame (30-11)
- Stanford, California – Stanford (33-14)
- Starkville, Mississippi – Mississippi State (40-15) - #7 National seed
- Tucson, Arizona - Arizona (40-15) - #5 National seed
Here's where other South Carolina teams ended up:
- Presbyterian will play Vanderbilt in Nashville
Tickets to the games at Founders Field are on sale now to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets for all regional games are packaged together in a NCAA Regional booklet and are $84 each through this link.
Selection of the eight Super Regional hosts -- selected from the group of 16 regional hosts -- will be announced on NCAA.com at 8 a.m. Tuesday, June 8.
The 2021 College World Series is scheduled to start Saturday, June 19, at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, in Omaha, Nebraska.
Enjoy this story from 2019 when USC retired jersey number 13 in honor of Earl Bass: