RALEIGH, N.C. — The good news for South Carolina is the fact that last week's SEC Tournament gave the Gamecocks a reasonably good feeling as they prepare to face James Madison in the first game of the Raleigh Regional.
While the two losses to LSU in shootout fashion were disappointing, Carolina did post wins over Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky and that has given head coach Mark Kingston plenty of optimism as the calendar prepares to turn to June which is the money month for college baseball teams vying for a spot in the College World Series.
"I just think at the end of the day, we showed the country last week what we’re capable of doing when we’re playing the way we can play," Kingston said at Thursday's pre-regional news conference.
"We’ve had a good season, it’s ups and downs. But generally all the teams in our league had some ups and downs because of the degree of difficulty. And so I think what we showed is that we can take a punch, and we can keep moving forward. When we get on a run, we’re pretty darn good. This past weekend for five games, we beat Kentucky — national seed, we beat Arkansas — national seed, beat Alabama — an NCAA Tournament team. We went toe to toe with LSU and had two games slip away. So we’re playing good baseball right here at the end of the season. It’s a new week. We just have to make sure we capitalize.”
Carolina and James Madison square off Friday at 2 pm with Eli Jones getting the start on the mound for the Gamecocks who are 36-23 on the season.