2013 Baseball World Series Columbia Regional Breakdown
South Carolina, Clemson, Liberty, Saint Louis
This will be South Carolina's 29th overall appearance in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. South Carolina won back-to-national championships after winning the College World Series in 2010 and 2011 along with four national runner-up finishes in 1975, 1977, 2002 and 2012. South Carolina has reached 11 College World Series in school history. South Carolina's 14 consecutive trips to the NCAA Baseball Tournament (2000-present) is the longest current streak of the 14 SEC schools. This marks the 15th time in school history that the Gamecocks will host an NCAA Regional in baseball. Since the move to the Regional/Super-Regional format in 1999, Carolina has hosted an NCAA Regional nine times (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013). The Gamecocks come into the tournament having dropped four of its last five. LB Dantzler and possibly the best name in baseball, Joey Pankake, are the team's boppers. Dantzler has 15 home runs, while Pankake has 10. They are also the squad's top RBI hitters, with 48 and 38, respectively. Unlike some of the other top seeds, South Carolina's pitchers don't have eye-popping numbers, but they are a group of consistency. Only two pitchers, Nolan Belcher and Jordan Montgomery, have made double digit starts, with Belcher making 15 and Montgomery 11. Belcher has a 7-5 record, while Montgomery has a 4-1 record with a 1.86 ERA. Tyler Webb does have 16 saves.
Clemson was extended a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the 19th time in Jack Leggett's 20 years as head coach at Clemson. For the second consecutive year, Clemson will travel to the Columbia Regional, hosted by South Carolina as the #2 seed. This will be Clemson's 38th trip to the NCAA Tournament, the fifth-highest total in the history of college baseball. The Tigers have been invited all but one season since 1987. The top pitcher in terms of victories and the #1 starter for most of the season has been sophomore right-hander Daniel Gossett, who has a 9-4 record in 15 starts and a 2.53 ERA. The Second-Team All-ACC hurler has a team-high 89 strikeouts, more than twice as many as any other Tiger, and opponents are hitting just .212 against him. Garrett Boulware is second on the team in batting with a .310 mark, but paces the team in home runs (8) and RBIs (44).
With a 2-1 win over Campbell this past Saturday in the Big South title game, the 34-27 Liberty Flames claimed the conference's automatic bid to an NCAA Regional and their first conference crown since 2000. After losing their first game of the tournament, Liberty won five straight games, four by one run, to claim the title. Danny Grauer leads the Flames with seven home runs and 41 RBI.
The Billikens (41-19) are coming off an A-10 tournament in which the team won five consecutive games (four in a 27 hour span) to claim the program’s third title. Alex Kelly has 11 home runs and 60 RBI, both team-highs for St. Louis.
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