Everything Mark Kingston said previewing South Carolina's series with Kentucky
Before South Carolina begins its three-game series with No. 4 Kentucky this weekend, head coach Mark Kingston met with the media on Thursday to preview the series. Here’s what he had to say.
Opening statement
“Another great team coming in for a great SEC series in Founders Park. Hoping to see some great electric crowds, hoping to see some great baseball on our part and, and have a very important series this weekend. So very excited for it.
Update on Will Tippett’s status for this weekend
“Will will not be available this weekend. He’s still in concussion protocol, but he’s also nursing a minor knee injury that happened on the exact same play. So he won’t be available this weekend. But we’re hopeful that it won’t be much longer before he’s able to play again for us.”
On weekend rotation
“We’re going to go Kimball, Jones, TBA, just to maintain some flexibility in case we need it.”
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On Kentucky
“I think the first thing that jumps off the page with them is the stolen base. So you have to be ready for the stolen base. They hit for power, they hit close to .300. They score runs at a pretty good clip. So it’s just a well rounded offense. It’s a well rounded team. They pitch well, they’re good out of the bullpen. They play good defense. They have a 32-7 record just because I think they’re very, very good across the board.”
On changing anything with the way Kentucky likes to steal bases
“I think there’s certain things that you just do in general to try to minimize the stolen base against you. But I think you probably need to have a little bit more heightened awareness, you need to make sure the other team knows that you’re going to be aware that’s one of their weapons. And so does that mean we pick off more? Does that mean we were quicker to the plate and use more slide steps? It’ll be a little bit of everything. But just know that we are aware of it and we will be prepared throughout the weekend. And you hope that you can do a good job of making sure that’s not a part of the game that really hurts you.”
On what he saw from Roman Kimball in his start last Friday
“Yeah, he was doing really well last week. Obviously, when he came on in the game, there were no runs on the scoreboard. I think he had at least five strikeouts through two innings. So he was doing really well. And it was unfortunate that he had to come out of the game, but it was a flukey thing. He had a great work week, he should be good and ready to go this weekend. So hopefully, he pitches just as well, but he’s able to go much much further into the game.”
On who the emergency shortstop will be if Lee Ellis goes down
“Yeah, that’s something we’ve done this week. LeCroy would slide over to shortstop, Casas would slide to third. So we do have some contingency plans in case something were to happen. But we’re saying our prayers that it doesn’t.”
On how the team can get closer to its goals this weekend
“Well, we just got to get over that hump. We keep playing toe to toe with all the best teams in the country. But we need to win one of these series against one of these top five teams. Most of the time, it’s a matter of one more hit, it’s a matter of one more play on defense, it’s a matter of making one more pitch that prevents a two run single with two outs against you. All these games are coming down to one play on either side. And we need to be the ones to get that one more play on the positive side. You do that, you win the game and you win the series. It’s that simple.”
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On what he noticed from Ethan Petry’s struggles last weekend and how to fix it
“I mean, he’s one of the best hitters in the country. And he will continue to be that. We dug into it after the weekend was over. And he got very few pitches to hit last week. But he swung out of the zone a lot, he was just a little bit too anxious. He’s a guy that wants to help propel us to be one of the best teams in the country. And when he knows he’s not doing that, or they’re not allowing him to do that he last week, he allowed it to get him a little bit frustrated. So I think he’ll learn from it and he’ll stay within the strike zone. And we’ve told him he needs to have that Barry Bonds mentality. If they’re gonna walk you, you’ve got to take your walk. If they’re gonna throw a strike, then you do your damage. Last week, I just thought he got out of the strike zone too much based on the number of strikes they were throwing him. And that’s why you saw him struggle. But it’s something he’ll learn from and he’s worked hard this week on it.”
On Parker Noland’s progression this season
“I think steady is the perfect word for him. I think he’s just had a really nice steady progression. I think he’s hitting a little higher in the lineup for us right now than he did at Vanderbilt last year. And I just think that’s a sign that he’s he’s come a long way. He’s hitting .282 right now, but we know he got off to a very slow start. So I’d say in the last 20 to 25 games, he’s been one of our better hitters. He’s hitting well over .300. So I just think he’s a steady influence, and he’s a mature kid. He’s just a good solid baseball player across the board. And I do think he’s better now than he was a year ago.”
On honoring Lindell Bradley (the first African-American student-athlete for the Gamecocks) this weekend
“As far as I know, we’ve made plans that he’s going to speak to the team in this room on Friday before the series kicks off. And then, he’s going to throw out the first pitch on Sunday. So obviously, very significant history wise and his impact on baseball, on this school. So we’re very happy that he’s being honored this weekend.”
On if it’s crunch time for this team
“Every day here is crunch time for us. Every game feels important. Every practice feels like you need to pay very strict attention to every detail. So I just think it’s a journey. From Opening Day til the last day in Omaha is a journey and you just have to respect each day. Some weeks go quicker than others, some weeks feel long, based on if it’s travel, if it’s home. Are you winning? Have you lost? But at the end of the day, our goal is to make sure that we take a very consistent approach, so that in the end and the big picture, you’re where you want to be.”
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On Lee Ellis’ play last weekend and how that can carry into this weekend
“I think he gave us a nice spark offensively. He took some very competitive at-bats. He had the two doubles, both to right field. But he also had the hit through the six hole. So yeah, he took some pretty competitive bats and sparked our offense. I think we need to get more consistency out of him defensively. Outside of catcher, shortstop is the hardest position for a freshman to play at this level. So we just need to continue to see him have confidence, play with confidence, and make all the routine plays.”
On if Austin Brinling will be back in the lineup again this weekend
“Yeah, Austin will be in the lineup this weekend.”
On facing a Kentucky pitching staff that pitches to contact
“As we’ve done probably throughout the year, because we’ve had some ups and downs, we are going to try to look for the best recipe for this team. And we’re going to continue to try different looks and different things until we feel like we have the perfect recipe. It’s no different than trying to come up with what’s the best recipe for your restaurant. And once you find it then you know, okay, this is what we’re going to stick with consistently. I still think we’re in the tweaking phase of trying to find what is our best identity. What is our best way to win games? Is it a power approach? Or does it need to be more speed and athleticism? We’re going to continue to evaluate that. Obviously, Brinling helped with our speed and athleticism last weekend. And so that spurred some conversation among our coaching staff about is that maybe a better style of play for us in 2024. We know ’23 was a power laden team. Maybe this year we need to continue to look at other ways to score runs, because we just haven’t quite recaptured that power magic that we had last year. So we will continue to try things, last week being an example with him. Doesn’t mean you won’t see some things this week that maybe you haven’t seen all year. How’s that for a tease?”
