College World Series 2011: South Carolina Baseball Going For Rare Back-To-Back Title

When the South Carolina Gamecoks face the Florida Gators on Monday in the first game of the best-of-three College World Series championship, they will be attempting to become just the seventh baseball team in CWS history to successfully defend their title. They would also become just the second team since 1997 to accomplish the feat. That it’s South Carolina with a chance to do this, and not one of the more traditional college baseball powers, is particularly noteworthy.

As you may know, college baseball has been dominated by schools located in the hotbed states of California, Florida and Texas, or named LSU, for quite some time. In fact, Oregon State (2006-07) and South Carolina are the only schools since 1991 to have won the CWS which are neither named LSU nor play in one of those three states. Oregon State, in fact, was the first school that didn’t meet one of those criteria to ever repeat as champions.

That it’s this South Carolina team threatening to pull it off seemed unlikely not so long ago. The Gamecocks entered the season with an unsettled starting rotation after Blake Cooper and Sam Dyson left them needing to replace 19 wins and 240 innings. Luckily, the trio of Michael Roth, Forrest Koumas and Colby Holmes eventually emerged and ended up combining for 26 wins and 330 innings. They now enter the championship riding a CWS record 14-game winning streak.