South Carolina baseball reclaims swagger ahead of Gainesville Super Regional showdown

As South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston answered questions on the field Wednesday at Founders Park, outfielder David Cromer stood directly behind him, sunglasses on, arms folded, acting like his coach’s bodyguard.

It’s a bit that Cromer — a reserve who seldom plays — started doing about midway through the 2023 season. In many ways, his bodyguard act embodies the spirit of this USC team: loyal, protective of one another and, at times, downright goofy. Even in the midst of a grueling, injury-plagued final month of the season, these Gamecocks stayed connected, stayed loose and kept having fun.

That’s not about to change now.

The Gamecocks (42-19) will open NCAA Tournament super regional play at 6 p.m. Friday against Florida (48-15), with a three-game series standing between them and a trip to the College World Series. Despite the gravity of the team’s first super regional appearance since 2018, these Gamecocks aren’t tensing up. Expect to see the same antics in the dugout — the cheering, the bananas, the Cromer bodyguard.

Expect to see the same swagger they’ve carried for most of the season.

“I think the guys have had fun,” Kingston said, with a statuesque Cromer behind him. “And I’ve challenged them to have more fun than any team that’s still playing for the rest of the season, because the teams that have fun and are loose tend to play better.”

The Columbia Regional last weekend was a clear-cut example of the energy that exudes from this team when it operates at its highest level. Back to near full strength, the Gamecocks ran through Central Connecticut State, N.C. State and Campbell, outscoring those teams 41-11 in a weekend punctuated by bat flips, raucous screams and a rocking Founders Park.

Coincidentally, the last time USC played with that level of confidence and spectacle was when the Gators came to Columbia on April 20-22. The Gamecocks swept the then-No. 3 Gators, pushing their season record to 34-6 and taking hold of the national spotlight. Anyone who’s followed the team knows what happened from there — a rash of injuries, four straight SEC series losses, doubts about hosting a regional. Noise around the program turned from glowing to panicked in the flip of a switch.

“It was tough,” said shortstop Braylen Wimmer, one of three starting infielders who missed games due to injury last month. “Obviously, we were hot there for first 40 games and then kind of hit a rut. Everybody on the outside’s talking about it, but the thing is, we all know within our locker room and our clubhouse and within this program who we are and what we’ve got.”

All throughout the rough patch, Kingston insisted that his team would bounce back once players like Wimmer, fellow infielders Will McGillis and Talmadge LeCroy and pitcher Will Sanders returned to health, and the coach was proven correct. All four of those players played key roles in USC’s sweep of the Columbia Regional, and they’ll likely need to continue to be productive in the Gainesville Super Regional for USC to have a chance against the No. 2 national seed Gators.

Multiple players said Wednesday that they’re not banking on a repeat of April’s sweep of Florida. They know June baseball is a different beast, and each series presents its own challenges.

But, in contrast to the final weeks of the season, this isn’t a team that’s pressing or searching for answers.

“I think you’ve just got to focus on having fun,” catcher Cole Messina said. “It’s gonna be hard to do probably this weekend at some points, but I think we’ll realize, ‘Hey, it’s just a game and you’re one of 16 teams playing left in the country.’

“So let’s have a bunch of fun. That’s definitely the motto going in.”

NCAA Tournament super regional schedule

— Florida vs. South Carolina, at Gainesville —

• 6 p.m. Friday (ESPN2)

• 3 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2)

• TBD Sunday/if necessary (TV TBD)

— Virginia vs. Duke, at Charlottesville —

• noon Friday (ESPN2)

• noon Saturday (ESPN2)

• TBD Sunday/if necessary (TV TBD)

— Oregon vs. Oral Roberts, at Eugene —

• 8 p.m. Friday (ESPNU)

• 9 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU)

• TBD Sunday/if necessary (TV TBD)

— TCU vs. Indiana State, at Fort Worth —

• 5 p.m. Friday (ESPNU)

• 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU)

• TBD Sunday/if necessary (TV TBD)

— Wake Forest vs. Alabama, at Winston-Salem —

• noon Saturday (ESPN)

• TBD Sunday (TV TBD)

• TBD Monday/if necessary (TV TBD)

— Stanford vs. Texas, at Stanford —

• 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2)

• TBD Sunday (TV TBD)

• TBD Monday/if necessary (TV TBD)

— LSU vs. Kentucky, at Baton Rouge —

• 3 p.m. Saturday (ESPN)

• TBD Sunday (TV TBD)

• TBD Monday/if necessary (TV TBD)

— Southern Miss vs. Tennessee, at Hattiesburg —

• 3 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU)

• TBD Sunday (TV TBD)

• TBD Monday/if necessary (TV TBD)