By ROBERT CESSNA
Texas A&M could meet Texas in the best-of-3 championship series at the College World Series, but long before then, the Aggies have to play the defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks.
A&M and fourth-seeded South Carolina will play at 6 p.m. Sunday. Top-seeded Virginia and California will play at 1 p.m. Sunday in the other matchup in the Aggies' bracket, that will feature a double-elimination format.
The other bracket will open play Saturday in Omaha, Neb., with Vanderbilt playing North Carolina and Texas taking on Florida.
A&M and South Carolina will meet for the first time on the diamond, but it's certainly not the first time they've been linked.
A&M athletics director Bill Byrne tried to hire South Carolina head coach Ray Tanner after firing Mark Johnson following the 2005 season. And why not? Tanner had made three straight trips to the CWS from 2002-04 on the heels of back-to-back Super Regional appearances. South Carolina countered A&M's interest by giving Tanner a seven-year contract, and the Gamecocks' baseball program has continued to flourish.
Byrne eventually hired Nebraska pitching coach Rob Childress, who has led the Aggies to five straight NCAA tournament appearances for the first time in school history capped by the program's first trip to Omaha since 1999.
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Tanner and the Aggies also have something else in common -- struggling in openers at Omaha.
Tanner is 0-4 but last season bounced back to win six straight games for the first time in CWS history, a run that earned the program its first national crown.
The personable Tanner joked at Tuesday's press conference that the Gamecocks lose openers by design. That drew a few laughs, but he added that after Sunday's 8-2 victory over Connecticut for a sweep of the Super Regional, opening-day losses in Omaha did cross his mind.
"I tried to forget about it," he said. "I thought we were not going to talk about it. But my coaches love to remind me. They [have] reminded me about six times a day."
Last year, Oklahoma beat South Carolina in the opener 4-3.
The other openers were lopsided -- Georgia Tech took an 11-0 win in 2002, Stanford 8-0 in 2003, and Cal State Fullerton 2-0 in 2004.
"I'd really love to win that first game, but we're playing a great club in A&M," said Tanner, who added that just scoring in an opener last year was a step foward.
A&M is 1-3 in CWS openers with the lone victory coming over Kansas in 1993. Springfield beat the Aggies 5-1 in 1951. Minnesota took a 7-3 victory in 1964 and Florida State won 7-3 in 1999.
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The Gamecocks could have back star center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. who has been out with a wrist injury after playing only 37 games.
"He practiced today running balls down in center field," Tanner said.
Bradley was drafted 40th overall last week with a supplemental first-round pick by the Boston Red Sox. He is hitting .259 with six homers and 26 RBIs. The junior hit .358 over his first two seasons with a combined 24 homers and 106 RBIs.
Bradley took some simulated swings, but even though he feels he can swing a bat the doctors and trainers are waiting to evaluate him before clearing him to play, Tanner said.
South Carolina will practice Wednesday and leave for Omaha on Thursday. Tanner said the next two days will determine if Bradley makes the team's 27-man active roster.
"I thought he'd be close by now," said Tanner, who added that if Bradley would return it would be as a reserve, not a starter.
Bradley, who was the CWS most outstanding player last year, tweeted "GREAT NEWS" on Tuesday morning.
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A&M and South Carolina have been mentioned prominently in the same breath in a few other instances recently.
A&M women's basketball fans were upset two years ago that Kelsey Bone signed with South Carolina where she earned Southeastern Conference newcomer of the year honors. But Bone transferred to A&M, sat out last season and will be ready to go this fall.
And when A&M fired football coach Dennis Franchione after the 2007 season, many Aggie fans wanted Byrne to consider South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier. But Byrne wasted no time in hiring Mike Sherman.
Robert Cessna's email address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.
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