South Carolina among 5 SEC teams ranked in top 10
Moments after South Carolina won its first national championship in 2010, coach Chad Holbrook, then an assistant, left the field to find his wife and sons in the stands of Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb.
As he ran up the stairway, he passed Gamecock fans, including men in their 60s, with tears streaming down their faces.
That was the first moment he realized the strength of the connection between USC’s baseball team and its fan base.
“When you see 60-year-old men cry, it makes you stop in your tracks a little bit and take a deep breath,” Holbrook said.
South Carolina has become one of the most visible programs in a sport that has never been more visible. The Gamecocks have played in the finals of the College World Series in each of the past three seasons, winning consecutive national championships in 2010 and 2011.
The Gamecocks join four other SEC teams in being ranked among the top 10 in most preseason polls this year. In the conference that Holbrook’s college coach Mike Roberts called “the major league of amateur baseball,” South Carolina faces stiff competition in its bid to return to Omaha, where the College World Series is played.
Players know the first step to reaching the postseason is being competitive in the conference.
“We set the expectations high around here,” catcher Grayson Greiner said. “Obviously Omaha is our goal every year, to get there. Obviously it would be very special for us to make it there, but we’re just going to try and take things a day at a time, a game at a time, a pitch at a time, and I know Coach is going to put our best nine out there to compete and try and win some games in the SEC.”
Holbrook said he doesn’t look at the expectations as a burden, choosing instead to see it as an “incredible opportunity.” Rather than talk to his players about the College World Series, he tells them to have a good practice that particular day.
The 2013 squad will miss the leadership of last season’s most dynamic leaders, Michael Roth and Matt Price. But Holbrook is confident that this year’s captains — converted first baseman LB Dantzler and pitchers Patrick Sullivan and Nolan Belcher — are capable leaders in their own right.
“They epitomize what our baseball program is all about,” Holbrook said. “They haven’t had the success on the field that Michael Roth and Matt Price had, but they have all the respect of our players in the locker room. You don’t have to be a great player to be a great leader.”
The coaches and players are used to questions about living up to South Carolina’s recent tradition of excellence, prompting Holbrook to joke, “The good thing about being head coach here is that we haven’t been very good in the past and no one’s expecting anything, right?”
Success has translated not only into greater prominence around the country for the Gamecocks, but also to increased fan support in Columbia.
Athletics Director Ray Tanner said when he became South Carolina’s baseball coach in 1996, season ticket sales for baseball numbered around 200. By 2012, that figure had surpassed 5,000. The Gamecocks set a record for season ticket sales again this year.
Holbrook knows every one of those fans hopes to see South Carolina continue its streak of College World Series appearances.
“I’m no math major, but I am smart enough to realize it doesn’t happen every year,” Holbrook said. “But I know the expectations are that we need to try to get there.”