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South Carolina outside D1Baseball's preseason Top 25 entering 2025 season

imageby:Jack Veltriabout 24 hours

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South Carolina baseball venue Founders Park (Photo: Katie Dugan | GamecockCentral.com)
South Carolina baseball venue Founders Park (Photo: Katie Dugan | GamecockCentral.com)

With South Carolina’s spring semester beginning, the return of college baseball is on the horizon. The Gamecocks will return to work on Monday before kickstarting full team practice on Jan. 24.

As the new season is only a few weeks away, the yearly preseason rankings have started to trickle out. D1Baseball released its preseason Top 25 on Monday, with the Gamecocks nowhere to be found. This marks the first time since 2022 that South Carolina will enter the new season as an unranked team.

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Here’s how D1’s Top 25 shaped out going into the 2025 season:

  1. Texas A&M
  2. Virginia
  3. LSU
  4. Tennessee
  5. Arkansas
  6. North Carolina
  7. Oregon State
  8. Georgia
  9. Florida State
  10. Florida
  11. Duke
  12. Oregon
  13. NC State
  14. Wake Forest
  15. Clemson
  16. Vanderbilt
  17. Oklahoma State
  18. Mississippi State
  19. Texas
  20. Dallas Baptist
  21. Arizona
  22. UC Santa Barbara
  23. TCU
  24. Nebraska
  25. Troy

Overall, the SEC has nine teams ranked inside the top 20, with the Gamecocks facing six of those teams in weekend series once conference play begins. That’s not including in-state rival Clemson, who plays South Carolina in a three-game series from Feb. 28-March 2.

[South Carolina-LSU WBB: Win tickets]

The Gamecocks, coming off a disappointing 37-25 season that ended in the regional round of the NCAA Tournament, will enter a new era in their program’s history. After firing former head coach Mark Kingston, Paul Mainieri will enter his first season as the program’s new leader. Mainieri was officially hired in June, agreeing to a five-year contract that runs through the 2029 season.

South Carolina will begin the season with an opening weekend series against Sacred Heart. Opening Day is slated for Friday, Feb. 14, with first pitch at 4 p.m. from Founders Park.

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