Mark Kingston stresses South Carolina's need to show consistency in postseason

South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston knows his team has to show consistency in the postseason, more so than the SEC Tournament.

The Gamecocks are expected to contend in the NCAA Tournament, but if the team plays like it did in the conference tournament, it could be a short postseason. Kingston knows it has to improve.

He spoke after South Carolina’s loss to Texas A&M to end the SEC Tournament.

“We know what we look like when we’re playing at our best,” Kingston said. “We get good starting pitching, and then the guys that come in behind our starting pitchers give us strikes and allow the defense to work. We know what that looks like.

“Offensively, again, we faced a guy with a really good arm today, and you’ve got to tip your cap sometimes. But we need length in our lineup. We need guys that are taking quality at-bats, and we’ve done that some as of late but not as much as we need to.

“But the defense, we’ve made all the routine plays. Again, I’d like to see us make some of those more impactful plays that can change the momentum of innings, but we are making all the routine plays right now, but it’s just a matter of putting it all together. I mean, that’s what it comes down to.”

South Carolina opened up its tournament with a 9-0 win over Georgia but followed that victory up with two straight losses to LSU (10-3) and Texas A&M (5-0).

Kingston can certainly coach his guys up, but it’s ultimately up to the players to reignite the offense and solid play in the field. If that’s the case, South Carolina could have a long run in the NCAA Tournament.

“Well, it won’t be a crash course,” Kingston said of pushing the right buttons to get ready for NCAAs. “I don’t want it to seem like we’re going to try to insert the wishbone offense here in a pass-happy offense. We just need guys healthy. We need Cole back.

“We need Wimmer on the field. We need those things. Clearly. We need those things to be our best team. We hope seven more days — and Wimmer DHing for I don’t know how many games. Feels like a long time. Unless the doctors tell us we can’t, we’re going to put him back out there on the field and let that spark us.”