2021 NCAA Tournament Columbia Regional Preview

To view the full bracket, click here. 

Friday Schedule
No. 1 Old Dominion vs. No. 4 Jacksonville (7 p.m. ET, ESPN3)
No. 2 South Carolina vs. No. 3 Virginia (12 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

No. 1 Old Dominion (42-14)

All-Conference Team Honorees: 2B Carter Trice (1st), OF Kyle Battle (1st), RHP Hunter Gregory (1st), SS Tommy Bell (2nd), OF Andy Garriola (2nd), RHP Ryne Moore (2nd), LHP Jason Hartline (2nd)

Season in a Sentence: An experienced roster led Old Dominion to its best season as a member of Conference USA and it was capped off by a conference tournament title, which earned the team a place as a traveling No. 1 seed in Columbia. 

Best Pitcher: RHP Hunter Gregory, 4YJr.—ODU’s pitching staff is more about depth than it is high-end talent. It has four trusted starting pitchers and a host of relievers it can lean on to get out of sticky situations, but Gregory stands out for the season he put together. He’s 8-2 with a 2.84 ERA, an 85-to-18 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a .222 opponent batting average in 73 innings. 

Best Hitter: OF Kyle Battle, 5YSr.—Second baseman Carter Trice, C-USA’s freshman of the year, could reasonably be the choice here, but the nod goes to Battle for the monster season he put together as a fifth-year senior, and for his knack for coming up with the big hit for the Monarchs time and again. He’s hitting .326/.467/.710 with 18 home runs, 59 RBIs and 52 walks compared to just 33 strikeouts. 

Outlook: ODU can beat you in a lot of ways. You don’t earn a spot as a No. 1 seed without that being the case, but offense, and more specifically, the home run ball, is where the Monarchs’ bread is buttered. They hit 101 of them on the season, including 18 by Battle, 14 by outfielder Andy Garriola and 13 by Trice. With an offense like that and a deep pitching staff, ODU is well-equipped to compete as well on Sunday or Monday in the regional as it is on Friday. ODU has earned its top seed, but this weekend will be no cakewalk, with hosting South Carolina and surging Virginia both capable of winning the weekend. 

No. 2 South Carolina (33-21)

All-Conference Team Honorees: DH Wes Clarke (2nd)

Season in a Sentence: Because of a streaky offense and shifting roles on the pitching staff, South Carolina’s season wasn’t easy, but it did enough to earn a host spot—albeit as a No. 2 seed—with a 33-21 record and 16-14 mark in SEC play, and it was playing much better baseball toward the end of the regular season. 

Best Pitcher: RHP Brett Kerry, 3YSo.—Kerry was effective early in the season as a multi-inning reliever, with a 0.56 ERA to show for it as late as March 27. Needing to find a spark late in the season, South Carolina moved him into the rotation for the last two weekends of the regular season, and he responded in a big way with a 10-strikeout shutout against Kentucky followed by seven strong innings in a win over Tennessee. On the season, he’s 5-1 with a 1.90 ERA and 83 strikeouts compared to nine walks in 52 innings. 

Best Hitter: DH Wes Clarke, 3YSo.—Clarke began the season as perhaps the hottest hitter in college baseball, bashing eight home runs in the first six games of the season. That pace slowed as SEC play got underway and he went into an extended funk throughout April, but he turned it on late, including hitting seven homers in May, to go into regionals with a .275/.433/.667 slash line and 22 home runs. 

Outlook: South Carolina has been such a streaky team that any result is on the table this weekend. It could hit its stride, get quality pitching performances, bash a bunch of home runs and sweep through the field buoyed by huge home crowds. Or, its offense could go silent and the inconsistent starting pitching could return to make it a quick exit. 

 

No. 3 Virginia (29-23)

All-Conference Team Honorees: LHP Andrew Abbott (1st), 3B Zack Gelof (2nd), DH Kyle Teel (3rd)

Season in a Sentence: A top-five team coming into the season, Virginia got off to a dreadful start in ACC play, at one point sitting at 4-11 in the league, only to rally late in the season by winning six of its last seven series to earn an at-large bid and look the part of one of the most dangerous No. 3 seeds in the field. 

Best Pitcher: LHP Andrew Abbott, 4YJr.—After being passed over in last year’s five-round draft, Abbott returned to Virginia and started work on becoming a starting pitcher. He went out this season as the Cavaliers’ Friday starter and, somewhat quietly, put up really strong numbers. He sports an 8-5 record with a 2.63 ERA and a conference-leading 136 strikeouts in 89 innings. 

Best Hitter: DH Kyle Teel, Fr.—It says a little something about how tough things were at times for Virginia this season that in a veteran lineup featuring premium draft prospects like Gelof and outfielder Chris Newell, a freshman in Teel was its best hitter. But it also says something about the talent of Teel, a premium prospect in his own right out of high school who chose to take his name out of the draft to attend Virginia instead. He’ll go into regionals leading the team in all three slash line categories at .311/.399/.506 and in home runs with eight, all while only starting in 42 of the team’s 52 games. 

Outlook: Few teams have been as strong as Virginia over the second half of the season, and you can’t discount how hungry this group is for success. Don’t forget that this is the team’s first postseason appearance since 2017, which predates this core arriving on campus. The talent is in place for Virginia to make a run and get to the College World Series, but how will it handle its first crack at postseason baseball, and on the road in a hostile environment no less? 

No. 4 Jacksonville (16-32)

All-Conference Team Honorees: None

Season in a Sentence: After going just 3-15 in ASUN play in the regular season, Jacksonville caught fire in the conference tournament, slipping past the top seed in the South Division, Florida Gulf Coast, in the quarterfinals before going a perfect 4-0 in the bracket last week to earn its second postseason appearance in three seasons. 

Best Pitcher: RHP Tyler Santana, 5YSr.—A fifth-year senior who has been productive since the moment he stepped on campus, Santana wrapped up his Jacksonville career with a solid season, going 5-7 with a 4.68 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 92.1 innings. 

Best Hitter: OF Ruben Someillan, 5YSr.—The only JU player to play in all 48 games, Someillan is hitting .303/.383/.364 while also handling a demanding defensive position in center field. Two-way player Mike Cassala is also worth noting. He came on strong late and hit .338 in 29 games. 

Outlook: Teams that are playing free and with nothing to lose are dangerous, and that’s the wave JU has been riding the last couple of weeks. It also took the fight to Florida in a series earlier this season, suggesting that it can rise to the occasion. But this is a really tough regional for a No. 4 seed to advance out of, and the Dolphins will have to play over their heads for another week if they want to compete to win games in Columbia.