Mark Kingston labels Kennedy Jones a 'key guy' for South Carolina

South Carolina has struggled to keep pace with Georgia so far in this weekend’s series between the two top-15 squads, but Kennedy Jones did all he could to give the Gamecocks a shot on Thursday night.

Georgia’s bats got rolling immediately this week as the Dawgs knocked in four runs in the top of the first inning and forced the Gamecocks to remove starter Roman Kimball after just 0.1 innings. However, in the bottom of the first, Jones came to the rescue and drove in runners on second and third with a single to make it just a one-run 4-3 deficit coming out of the inning.

By the time Carolina got up to bat in the eighth inning, they’d done little to stop the bleeding as Georgia racked up 14 runs to the Gamecocks’ respectable seven. But thanks to Jones, that number grew as he whipped a double down the left field line and drove in one run and put himself and another runner on second and third. Both scored to make it 14-10.

While that still wasn’t enough to put South Carolina in position to win, Kennedy Jones still had to go home pretty satisfied with his effort trying to keep the Gamecocks competitive. After the game, Mark Kingston noted that when you have good hitters like Jones, games like that are always possible.

“Well, he’s a good player and good players have really good nights,” said the Carolina coach after the game. “Nobody has great nights every time they play, you know, that’s why great hitters hit .300.”

But it’s days like Thursday that show just how valuable Jones is to the lineup, per Kingston. “He’s one of our best hitters, he hits in the middle of the order and he’s a key guy for us, no question about it.”

As if Kingston could predict the future, Jones didn’t come out and have his best day on Friday and failed to reach base on any of his four at bats in that contest. As a result, the Gamecock offense suffered mightily, mustering half the number of runs they did the day before with five. That’s still not a terrible number, but Georgia’s offense just kept humming, posting 11 to take the series in just two games.

On the 2024 season, Kennedy Jones is batting .308 and has knocked in 46 RBIs along with eight home runs on the year as one of the premier bats in the South Carolina lineup.