Omaha? Super Regionals? What experts are predicting for South Carolina baseball for 2021
With the 2020 MLB Draft complete and a host of undrafted free agents signing professional deals, college baseball experts have started to turn their focus to the 2021 season — and they’re split in what they’re predicting for South Carolina.
Perfect Game released its “way too early” predictions for the 2021 College World Series on Thursday, and while coach Mark Kingston’s Gamecocks weren’t included in the top eight teams picked to advance to Omaha, they were one of the eight projected to make an NCAA Super Regional.
“The draft literally could not have gone any better for the Gamecocks and returning freshman third baseman Brennan Milone is a star in the making,” Mike Rooney wrote for Perfect Game.
USC had just one current player selected in the abbreviated five-round draft, ace Carmen Mlodzinski, and one signee, pitcher Luke Little. Both were widely expected to go pro before the draft anyway.
Meanwhile, top signees like Brandon Fields, Will Sanders and Jackson Phipps, all top-200 prospects, went undrafted and will come to campus. Several highly-rated pitchers, Thomas Farr and Brannon Jordan, are also returning after getting off to impressive starts in the 2020 season.
Since the end of the draft, infielder Noah Campbell and pitchers Graham Lawson and TJ Shook have signed deals as undrafted free agents.
Milone, the star in the making cited by Perfect Game, wowed the coaching staff throughout the fall of his freshman year and broke into the opening day starting lineup. Injuries limited him to five starts before the coronavirus pandemic forced the season’s cancellation.
On the other hand, Baseball America and D1Baseball.com have also released “Eight for Omaha” predictions for next year’s College World Series, and South Carolina doesn’t make an appearance on either list. Baseball America also released “never too early” top 25 rankings, and the Gamecocks were absent from that list as well.
South Carolina is welcoming a top-10 recruiting class to campus in 2020 and will likely have plenty of competition for lineup and rotation spots now that the NCAA has lifted the 35-player roster maximum. That’s a situation that’s likely to play out at top programs across the country as the shortened draft drastically cut down on the number of players going pro.
In Columbia, Kingston will be looking to lead the Gamecocks back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2018, when USC made a Super Regional in his very first season. That was followed by a rough 2019 that saw Carolina tie a program record with 28 losses and miss the tournament. In 2020, the Gamecocks were 12-4 and about to start SEC play before the season was canceled.
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 3:11 PM with the headline "Omaha? Super Regionals? What experts are predicting for South Carolina baseball for 2021."
