Feb. 3, 2014

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Junior catcher Grayson Greiner and junior infielder Joey Pankake earned third-team Preseason All-America honors from Baseball America. The Gamecocks, ranked No. 7 in the nation by Baseball America, begin the 2014 season on Friday, Feb. 14 vs. Bucknell in the first game of a three-game series at Carolina Stadium.

Greiner played this past summer for Team USA and was a 2013 second-team All-SEC selection. Pankake is one of the top returning hitters in the SEC and the country. A participant in last year’s Home Run Derby at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Pankake raised his average to .311 last year to go along with 11 homers and 42 RBI and a slugging percentage of .496.

Baseball America also ranked the top 50 prospects by class with Greiner the No. 24 best junior in the country and Pankake the No. 40 best junior in the nation. Other Gamecocks ranked were freshman right-hand Wil Crowe, who was rated the No. 24 best freshman in the country and sophomore infielder Max Schrock, who was named the No. 34 best sophomore in the nation.

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South Carolina won the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship in 2010 and 2011 at the College World Series. South Carolina has 11 College World Series appearances, including six in the last 12 years. South Carolina is the only school with 200 or more wins in the last four years (2010 to the present) with a 201-70 record, and the Gamecocks own the second-highest win total in the nation in the last 14 years (2000 to the present) with a 669-271 record. South Carolina is one of five schools to appear in the NCAA Regional every season in the last 14 years, including 11 NCAA Super Regional appearances in that span, one of only two schools to accomplish the feat.