USC will be the “hunted” team after repeating as national champions
Before the start of the 2011 season, South Carolina baseball coach Ray Tanner was looking forward to expectations being set high for his squad.
“I know when I came here, I was the hunter,” Tanner said on the first day of the 2011 spring practice. “We were trying to go get some people. And then you have a little success, you become the hunted. I’d rather be the hunted.”
After two national championships, Tanner has his wish. But with the 2012 squad boasting more new faces than old ones, the expectations can seem overwhelming; however, if South Carolina has anything going for it this season, it’s that it doesn’t get overwhelmed easily.
Nevertheless, every Gamecock fan has the same question: Will there be a three-peat?
“It’s something that we hear on a daily basis – if we’ll three-peat,” said senior outfielder Adam Matthews. “We kind of take that in. We like that attention because it’s something that shows that this program has been successful and it’s something that the fans want to continue. I wouldn’t say it puts the pressure on us, but it makes us play up to our ability. We know we’re capable of having a good team and we’re going to go out there and play game by game and see where it takes us.”
The emphasis for the squad has been nearly unanimous in taking it game by game, which is what it did for the past two years. Ranked by most preseason polls as the No. 2 squad in the nation behind Florida, the Gamecocks will face an opposing team’s best in each game.
“Why wouldn’t you want to have the target on your back?” said senior pitcher Matt Price. “Everybody wants to come after you, but we’re going to go after everybody else.”
Though the Gamecocks will be without most of the infield from the last national championships in second baseman Scott Wingo, third baseman Adrian Morales, catcher Brady Thomas and shortstop Peter Mooney, as well as a chunk of the bullpen, the drive to win championships hasn’t been lost as the new faces are motivated to taste success of their own. More importantly for Tanner, the charisma of the squad hasn’t been lost either.
“We try to have a little bit of fun,” Tanner said. “There’s no doubt about it that in the last four or five years things have changed. Michael Roth and Wingo in the program — they played their rear ends off. But they had fun. Probably early on I was trying to figure out which was going on at which time, but that’s been a great influence on me as well. You try to keep it in perspective, because after all, at the end of the day it is just a game.”
Senior pitcher Michael Roth, who was praised by Tanner for his light-heartedness, said that the evident fun the players are constantly having in their chants and superstitions stems from a passion for baseball.
“I don’t think it’s something that we have to emphasize,” Roth said. “I think it’s just players enjoy what we do out here. We enjoy this game of baseball we play. I don’t think we’d play if we didn’t like it. It’s just something that we like to do so we just come out here and have fun. We don’t take things overly serious.”
With not taking things too seriously, Tanner never feels the need to sit down and go over goals and objectives, saying that the team focuses on “what we’re doing in the moment and trying to be the best that we can be.” In the past, Tanner said that he might have been guilty of putting too much pressure on the squad, which didn’t put it in the best position to succeed. Now, Tanner said he tries not to negatively affect the team with his emotions; however, the Gamecocks are well aware of what the fans expect, especially when they’ve come out in the thousands for scrimmages.
“I mean, obviously there’s expectations here, which is what we want,” Matthews said. “We want people to want us to win. The crowd that we have, the Gamecock fans that we have is just a blessing. But, we know, we don’t try to look into that too much. We just come out here every day and play how we know how to play. If we do that, then the everything else will take care of itself.”
Just as Tanner is still searching for the balance between fun and pressure to win, there’s also a balance between what’s happened in the past and how that impacts the team’s future.
“I tell the guys that you draw from the past when it benefits you, and other than that, you turn the page,” Tanner said. “I don’t think it’s a big deal. It’s not a pressure situation. It’s perspective, it’s reality and you do the best you can. You hope you get to win at the right time. It’s not complex for me, and I don’t think it is for them. You just try to win the next one.”