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This week, D1Baseball released its “way-too-early 2027 Eight for Omaha.” One analyst, Jack Delongchamps, predicted that South Carolina baseball will make a return trip to the College World Series.
According to Delongchamps, the Gamecocks will be back in Omaha in 2027 for the first time since 2012. That was, of course, the third year in a row that Carolina played in the College World Series final. Ray Tanner’s teams won the national title in 2010 and 2011 but lost in the final in 2012.
In D1Baseball’s panel of 11 way-too-early CWS voters, 10 picked Mississippi State, nine went with LSU, seven predicted North Carolina and Texas, six projected Auburn, and five revealed good feelings about Georgia. Four analysts believe strongly in Florida, Oklahoma, Southern Miss, and Virginia. Three selected Arizona State and Tennessee as CWS teams, while two opted for Arkansas, Florida State, Vanderbilt, TCU, and West Virginia. Joining South Carolina with one vote each were Arkansas-Little Rock, Ohio State, Southern Cal, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Texas A&M, Oregon State, UC-Santa Barbara, UCLA, Wake Forest, and Miami.
All 11 voters included at least four SEC teams in their offseason College World Series prognostication.
Delongchamps was the only D1Baseball voice with such a projection for the Gamecocks. Joining USC in his current 2027 Omaha Eight were the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans, LSU Tigers, Ohio State Buckeyes, Southern Cal Trojans, and Texas Longhorns.
Though not the consensus at D1Baseball, Delongchamps’ optimism is shared by many in Columbia.
New South Carolina baseball coach Kevin Schnall has assembled what appears to be a top-notch coaching staff and has completely flipped the roster.
Joining Schnall in the dugout are former South Carolina pitching coach Matt Williams (the 2025 national assistant coach of the year, according to multiple outlets), former Wake Forest hitting coach Bill Cilento (one of the top hitting coaches in the country), former Coastal Carolina top assistant Chad Oxendine, long-time Gamecock Stuart Lake, and a host of other impressive staffers.
On the field, Schnall and company have signed 25 players from the transfer portal. (You can check out the GamecockCentral transfer portal tracker here.) On3’s Pete Nakos listed South Carolina as his No. 2 overall winner of the 2026 transfer portal season. 64Analytics has also consistently placed the Gamecocks in the top five of their transfer portal rankings.
It is safe to say that South Carolina will be much improved for the 2027 season. Whether or not Delongchamps is right remains to be seen. However, the Kevin Schnall era is off to a good start at proving him right.
