South Carolina baseball begins postseason journey Friday. How to watch, key storylines

Before the college baseball season opened, South Carolina took a team-bonding trip to Fort Jackson — literally spending time in the trenches together. The Gamecocks crawled through mud, scaled 40-foot walls and got a sense of how they could join forces to work through adversity.

Over the last month, USC has needed to tap into those survival skills, trying to maintain morale while dropping 13 of 18 games to end the season. Still, the No. 15 seed Gamecocks (39-19) got off to a strong enough start to the season to secure a hosting bid and will open play 7 p.m. Friday in the Columbia Regional against Central Connecticut State (36-12) at Founders Park, streaming on ESPN+.

The Gamecocks have heard the noise — and grumbling from fans — as they struggled down the final stretch this season. But Mark Kingston said the team is treating Friday like a new opening day, and players are trying to get back to the foundations of toughness they set way back in their preseason trip to Fort Jackson.

“The first day, we got off the bus at Fort Jackson and literally put our faces in the mud,” pitcher Jack Mahoney said. “That kind of set the tone for the whole year. And I think people make the regular season 56 games for a reason. It’s a long season, especially for kids our age, too.

“But you get to find out a lot about a team in 56 games, and we found out I think more on that losing streak than we did when we were winning a lot.”

Here are key storylines for the Gamecocks as postseason baseball begins in Columbia.

USC nearly back to full strength

Ever since the regular season ended, Kingston has pointed to the gap between the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament as essential for getting the Gamecocks healthy again.

After USC opened the year 34-6, injuries struck South Carolina’s starting infield and pitching staff, contributing to the Gamecocks’ late-season slide. Other than pitchers Noah Hall and Eli Jerzembeck — whom Kingston has already indicated won’t pitch again this year — USC should have a full arsenal of players at its disposal this weekend.

“This eight days has been really good for us,” Kingston said. “We’ve had a lot of guys banged up. I think we’re going to be about as healthy and feel about as good as we can going into this weekend. Probably the best we have in a long, long time.”

Catcher Cole Messina is cleared from the concussion protocol after taking a foul ball to the mask in the SEC Tournament. Shortstop Braylen Wimmer is set to return to playing in the field after being a designated hitter the last couple of weeks due to a hamstring injury. And right-hander Will Sanders is available to pitch out of the bullpen for the Gamecocks.

The only wild card is second baseman Will McGillis, who hasn’t played since aggravating his arm injury late in the season. McGillis practiced Thursday, and Kingston didn’t rule out an appearance.

“We may have a few tricks up our sleeve,” Kingston said, cracking a smile.

Pitching plan for the Gamecocks

Kingston played coy during his Thursday press conference about who will pitch for the Gamecocks on Friday and throughout the weekend, saying only it will be “someone on the current roster.”

That someone, at least for Friday, will be veteran right-hander James Hicks, the team announced late Thursday afternoon.

After pitching primarily out of the bullpen for the Gamecocks this season, Hicks (7-1, 3.61 ERA) started USC’s first game of the SEC Tournament against Georgia and threw a gem, allowing just four hits in 6.2 scoreless innings. Relying on a sinker low in the zone and in on the hands, Hicks creates an uncomfortable matchup for hitters and drew rave reviews from Kingston in Hoover, Alabama.

When asked whether Hicks had earned the chance to start in a regional, Kingston offered a pretty big hint.

“Damn right,” Kingston said last week. “I mean, you have to, right? You have to. You always have to be evaluating what is going on and the trends of your team. Yeah, absolutely we have to look at that. We have to evaluate it.

“The reason why James was in the bullpen early in the season was not because he was not capable of being a weekend starter. It was because we just had probably one of the best, deepest pitching staffs in the country.”

Behind Hicks, the Gamecocks will most likely turn to Mahoney, who has been the team’s most reliable and consistent starter this season. With a strong No. 2 and No. 3 seed in Campbell and N.C. State, it makes sense to save him for a more accomplished lineup. Left-hander Matthew Becker and right-hander Eli Jones should also both be in the starting mix, with Jones starting in the SEC Tournament last week and serving as Friday starter down the stretch of the regular season.

Kingston has already said Sanders won’t start this weekend but could be available for multiple stints out of the bullpen. Kingston said Sanders likely won’t approach 100 pitches in an outing.

Can the offense snap back?

The USC offense hit a wall in its final two games of the SEC tournament, sputtering against a hittable LSU bullpen and mustering just one hit — an infield single — in a tournament-ending 5-0 loss to Texas A&M.

Kingston lamented after the loss to the Aggies that USC needed to find a way to get its “magic” back that it had earlier in the season. At one point the Gamecocks led the country in home runs and averaged nearly 10 runs a game, but that group slowed down over the final moth of the season as injuries mounted.

Freshman star Ethan Petry said fatigue might’ve played a factor in USC hitters slumping down the stretch, but he said the Gamecocks have emphasized getting back to fundamentals this week.

“We were just focused on approach and just having short tight swings and just like more bat-to-ball instead of a lot of strikeouts,” Petry said.

Columbia Regional Schedule

Friday, June 2

Game 1 – (2) Campbell (44-13) vs. (3) N.C. State (35-19), 1 p.m. (ACC Network)

Game 2 – (1) South Carolina (39-19) vs. (4) Central Connecticut State (36-12), 7 p.m. (ESPN+)

Saturday, June 3

Game 3 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, Noon (TV TBA)

Game 4 – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 6 p.m. (TV TBA)

Sunday, June 4

Game 5 – Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, Noon (TV TBA)

Game 6 – Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 6 p.m. (TV TBA)

Monday, June 5

Game 7 – If Necessary, TBD (TV TBA)