The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: Sports

Four days from now, the South Carolina baseball team will hit the diamond for a three-game series against the East Carolina Pirates. The last time the two teams met on the diamond, Carolina won thrilling back-to-back games to advance to their third consecutive College World Series.

When was the last time another team on this campus, besides the baseball program, played a truly meaningful game that had an impact on the national stage?

Now don't get me wrong, I love Carolina football and basketball. I go to every game, cheer loudly and wear my colors proud when the Garnet and Black pull out a victory.

But let's be honest, neither the basketball team nor the football team has played a truly meaningful game in recent memory (and I don't count a 7-win Carolina team going against an 8-win Clemson team an important game).

The fact of the matter is, the baseball program is undoubtedly the most successful program that this university has seen in a long, long time. It easily surpasses the Fire Ant defenses from the 1980s under football coach Joe Morrison, and it rivals the dominating hardwood teams that were led by Frank McGuire in the 1960s and '70s.

As I watched the crowd in the Colonial Center erupt into a frenzy as former basketball great John Roche approached midcourt this past weekend, I thought about the heroes that have worn the Garnet and Black for their respective sports.

I thought about stars like Heisman trophy winner George Rogers, Parade All-American BJ McKie and Alex English, who is still looked at as one of the best to ever play in the NBA.

Then I thought of junior first baseman Justin Smoak, who by season's end should demolish every major offensive record held at USC.

Smoak, who is projected as a top five overall pick in the upcoming Major League draft, is set to handle first base duties for a team that has qualified for the NCAA Super Regionals seven out of the past eight years, which only one other team in the nation has done.

That team also has piled up 40 or more victories in a season the past eight consecutive years. The Gamecocks are the only team in the SEC to accomplish that feat, as well as qualify for the NCAA and SEC Tournaments all eight years.

Allow those statistics to sink in for just a moment.

What the USC baseball team has been doing over the past eight years is amazing, and everyone on this campus needs to realize it.

So get out to Sarge Frye Field this weekend to support the Gamecocks as they look to march on to Omaha and the College World Series and maybe even the National Championship.

Don't worry about wasting four hours on another Gamecock team that will probably lose - Carolina is 75-3 in games played in February since 2000.

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