Mark Kingston explains Roman Kimball's struggles

South Carolina’s pitchers have had a rough weekend so far against Georgia, allowing double-digit runs in both losses on Thursday and Friday.

From the very first inning, the Gamecocks just got mauled by the Bulldog batters. On Thursday, starting pitcher Roman Kimball recorded just one out before he was yanked. That’s because future top MLB Draft choice Charlie Condon knocked in an RBI double to get UGA on the board before another batter cleared Condon and another base runner with a three-run shot to make it 4-0 in the top of the first.

After the loss, head South Carolina coach Mark Kingston addressed the brutal start for Kimball, pinpointing a specific problem with where he was placing pitches early on.

“He just he leaves too many balls up,” said Kingston. “You know, Roman needs to pitch up in the zone but not above the zone, and there’s a big difference.”

Kingston continued, explaining that big difference, especially against a potent offense like Georgia.

“When he’s above the zone, he walks guys. When he’s at the top of the strike zone, he gets a lot of fly balls and swings and misses and there’s a fine line between that.”

It’s not all on Kimball, though. After all, few pitchers have been able to wrangle Charlie Condon into submission at the plate, and the next Gamecock arm to face him didn’t fare much better, giving up a home run, which marked Condon’s EIGHTH straight game going yard. Those hits in the first and second inning were the only of his night, but that was plenty enough damage to give UGA a big cushion early on.

Perhaps Mark Kingston should have taken his own half-hearted advice. In the press conference this week previewing the series, he was asked how South Carolina planned to pitch to Charlie Condon, and Kingston actually joked that the Gamecocks wouldn’t even bother with him.

“You throw the ball to the back stop and make sure he doesn’t steal second base. How about that?” Kingston responded to media after the Condon question. But seriously, perhaps that would have been a better strategy than allowing him to club an RBI double and home run.

Now, the Gamecocks do deserve some credit for being the first team since April to prevent Charlie Condon from hitting a home run in a game and snapped his eight-game homer streak in Friday’s contest. He did still manage two hits during five at bats and reached on a walk as well with Georgia taking the second game 11-5 after a 14-10 victory the day prior.

Carolina will try to salvage at least one win from this huge home series on Saturday, but they may need to actually implement Mark Kingston’s throw-to-the-backstop strategy vs. Condon to make that happen.