When the regionals pairings were set the committee had the intentions of matching up Clemson and South Carolina for an intrastate smackdown. What the committee didn’t plan for was Oklahoma State cruising through the Clemson regional and blowing out the host in back-to-back games.
After dropping the opener to Rhode Island, South Carolina battled its way through the loser’s bracket, winning four straight to advance to the super regionals.
As the 2010 and 2011 CWS champs, South Carolina has a recent postseason pedigree that the Cowboys do not. While Josh Holliday is a good coach, he doesn’t hold the experience that Chad Holbrook does with his six College World Series appearances.