Everything Mark Kingston said after South Carolina's big win over UNC
After South Carolina picked up a 2-1 win over No. 13 North Carolina on Tuesday, head coach Mark Kingston spoke to the media about the victory. Here’s what he had to say.
On the job the defense did
“Well, it all starts when your pitchers do that, you get that kind of defense. There’s no question it started with Eskew and Kimball and Marlatt and McCreery. They all threw the ball incredibly well. They pounded the zone and when they do that you get great defense behind you. Really, really excited about that level of pitching and defense. That was as high of a level of pitching and defense as you can have.”
On Roman Kimball’s recent outings
“I see a more confident guy. I see a guy that’s kind of in control of his emotions. A couple weeks ago, we left him behind on a roadtrip so he could have a reset. He met with our sports psychologist, Rayleen. And he’s been a different guy ever since. He took the chance to clear his head, she talked about some strategies that he could do to kind of make sure he’s under control, and he’s really run with it. His mechanics have been better. He looks like he’s much more under control and confident. He’s been dominant ever since. Sometimes it’s great to take a step back to try to take three or four forward.”
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On Connor McCreery’s performance
“Again, when those guys come in, you try to get a feel for how good are they tonight. And if they’re really good, you let them ride. And if they look like they might struggle a little bit, then you get the next guy ready. But he came in and from that first pitch the ball was exploding out of his hand. He was electric. Once he looked that good and you could tell he was pounding the strike zone, we felt like he would finish it tonight.”
On McCreery being able to pitch well despite not getting much game action lately
“No, he hasn’t. But he’s been showing glimpses of it. This is probably the biggest moment that we’ve given him to really close out a game. And to see that he responded in that manner, that’s big for us tonight, but that will also serve us very well the second half of the season.”
On the feel of Tuesday’s game being bigger
“I would agree with that 100 percent. It’s two teams that want to go to Omaha this year. It’s two teams that are having good years, it’s two teams that obviously have a rivalry over who’s the real Carolina. So I thought it was a very highly level baseball game. They used a lot of their best pitchers tonight. Obviously, we used some really good ones as well. So I think it did feel much more than just your run of the mill Tuesday night game.”
On if this win can be impactful down the road
“Well, no question. That’s another really good quality RPI win. At the end when they say, ‘Okay, who have you beaten?’ You beat North Carolina in a great game. So there’s no question it will be important.”
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On scoring right after UNC tied the game
“That was a gut punch in the eighth. The walk and then the double, it hit us really quick. It was a gut punch. So we responded really well that next inning. So really happy with the guys doing that.”
On Dylan Brewer’s night at the plate
“Dylan made a slight adjustment offensively that obviously paid dividends very quickly. We need him playing like that. When he’s playing like that, if we can get to the point where all our guys are at least playing close to their level of play, then I think we’ll have a really, really good offense. We’re not there yet, but it was his night tonight. And we just need to keep working with guys so we can get them all humming like that.”
