C of C wants to remove all doubt

College of Charleston coach John Pawlowski doesn't like to speculate about his team's chances of making an NCAA baseball regional should the Cougars fall short of winning this week's Southern Conference Tournament to earn the league's automatic bid.

"I'm telling our guys, 'Hey, let's remove all doubt,' " he said. "Let's go win (the SoCon Tournament) and make the selection committee start out with our name already on the board."

Second-seeded Charleston (36-19, 18-9 SoCon) begins the quest at 10 a.m. today at Joe Riley Park against No. 7 Western Carolina, an 11-10 winner in 12 innings over No. 10 Davidson in Tuesday's play-in game.

The Cougars could have all but wrapped up a regional bid if they had managed to sweep Western Carolina in the last weekend of the regular season to earn a share of the regular season title and the No. 1 seed in this week's SoCon Tournament.

Charleston won the first two games, but dropped the final game of the series 13-12 after rallying from an 11-2 deficit.

That left Elon as the Southern Conference regular season champion and probably locked up a regional spot for the Phoenix, regardless of what happens in this week's SoCon Tourney.

If the Cougars don't win the SoCon Tourney, it may be in their best interest to see the Phoenix win it.

"Elon is in a pretty good situation," Pawlowski said. "They won the regular season and they've got more wins. Right now their resume stacks up better than ours.

"If they win it, it helps us, but that doesn't guarantee it. We've put ourselves in a position where our backs are against the wall this late in the season. We've got to go out and win this tournament."

Kendall Rogers, college baseball editor for Rivals.com, figures the Cougars need to reach the championship game of the tournament to lock up a regional bid.

"The College of Charleston will

now their resume stacks up better than ours.

"If they win it, it helps us, but that doesn't guarantee it. We've put ourselves in a position where our backs are against the wall this late in the season. We've got to go out and win this tournament."

Kendall Rogers, college baseball editor for Rivals.com, figures the Cougars need to reach the championship game of the tournament to lock up a regional bid.

"The College of Charleston will probably earn an at-large bid if they can at least reach the SoCon Championship game," Rogers said. "As of right now, they have a decent (but far from great) RPI of 51. They do have a very solid conference record and are 6-4 in the last 10 games, which is a major plus. As long as they show well in the league tournament, I think they're in good shape. However, if someone other than Charleston or Elon wins the tourney, they're in big trouble and will most likely be on the outside looking in."

SEBaseball publisher Mark Ethridge says the Cougars' fate won't only be decided by their performance in the SoCon.

"A lot depends on what happens elsewhere," said Ethridge, who projects Charleston as one of the last five teams that will get an NCAA regional bid.

"If there are a lot of upsets in college tournaments, it's going to hurt Charleston. If you're a Cougars' fan, you need to be pulling for teams like Coastal Carolina and Oral Roberts to win their tournaments."

The Cougars enter the SoCon Tournament on a bit of a roll having won six of their last eight games.

"We've been playing some good baseball down the stretch," Pawlowski said. "It came down to the last game of the season. We gave ourselves a chance to win it and didn't do it. But this tournament is as wide open as any I've seen. It's up for grabs, so you better bring your 'A' game."

The Cougars enter with plenty of incentive, not the least of which is an NCAA regional bid.

They would also like to erase the memory of last year's showing. Charleston lost two straight games and the Cougars ultimately were left out of the NCAA Tournament.

"We obviously want to make up for that showing," said Charleston first baseman Michael Harrington. "I think we're ready. We've been playing good baseball lately and I think we're in good position to make a run in the tournament."