South Carolina baseball earns 2-seed, heads to East Carolina regional for NCAA Tournament

The South Carolina Gamecocks learned their NCAA Tournament fate on Monday afternoon, landing as a 2-seed in the Greenville Regional hosted by the East Carolina Pirates.

ECU, the No. 12 overall seed, compiled a 43-16 (14-10 AAC) record this season capped with the American Athletic Conference Tournament title. (Also, the Pirates have a guy on their roster named Spencer Brickhouse, who appropriately was the event’s most outstanding player.) South Carolina hasn’t faced ECU since 2010, when the Gamecocks fell in a road series.

Joining South Carolina in Greenville are third-seeded Ohio State and fourth-seeded UNC-Wilmington, the latter of which the Gamecocks defeated a couple years ago in the Columbia Regional. The Buckeyes went 36-22 (14-10 Big Ten), reaching the Big Ten Tournament semifinals before falling to top-seeded Minnesota. The Seahawks (37-21, 14-9 CAA) won the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament and are considered one of the strongest 4-seeds in the tournament by D1Baseball.

The Greenville Regional is paired with the Fayetteville (Arkansas) Regional. The Razorbacks earned the No. 5 national seed and are hosting Southern Miss, Dallas Baptist, and Oral Roberts.

Regional play begins Friday at 2 p.m., with the Gamecocks facing off against the Buckeyes on ESPN2.