Several South Carolina Gamecocks Garner All-Conference Awards

The South Carolina Gamecocks recently finished the regular season at 42-13 and clinched the SEC East with a sweep over the Alabama Crimson Tide. However, the accolades haven't stopped there in recent days for the Gamecocks as several of them have landed on an All-SEC team.

Leading the way is Gene Cone. Gene was named a First Team All-SEC outfielder. Gene finished the regular season with a .348/.460/.481 slash line and also drove in 22 runs and scored 43 times. Cone finished third in the SEC in on-base percentage and also ninth in batting average.

Clarke Schmidt landed a spot on the All-SEC 2nd team. Clarke, the Friday night ace for the Gamecocks all year long, bounced back from an up and down freshman campaign by winning 9 games and striking out 108 batters compared to only 20 walks. Clarke led the starting pitching rotation with a 2.72 ERA in the regular season.

Both Clarke Schmidt and Gene Cone are semi-finalists for the Gregg Olson Award, given to college baseball's breakout player of the year.

Significantly, the Gamecocks landed 4 players on the All-SEC Freshman team. Chris Cullen, LT Tolbert, Braden Webb and Adam Hill all were awarded with a spot on the All-Freshman squad. This is impressive as the Gamecocks often started 6 or 7 freshmen or sophomores at a time on any given night. It appears, with continued impressive recruiting, that Gamecock baseball has a very bright future.