Gamecocks 'don't have time to be concerned' while trying to fix offense
People and pundits will focus this weekend on South Carolina, its hosting resume and if the Gamecocks deserve to be one of the top 16 teams in the country.
South Carolina is in the mix to play at home in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Or it could be sent somewhere else.
But not much of it is going to matter if the Gamecocks can’t get the offense back on track after a sluggish stretch at the plate.
[Win a mini helmet autographed by Spencer Rattler]
“We don’t have time to be concerned. We have to get to work and try to recapture that magic, we just do,” Mark Kingston said.
“We’ve got one less week to figure it out. Thank God we’re not sitting here trying to justify why we should get into the NCAA tournament. We’re going to be there. And whether it’s at home or whether it’s on the road, we’ve got one week to figure it out and try to get those guys going. Because when we’re going, then we can really get it done. Right now, we’re not going.”
Over the last 10 overall games–which includes three in the SEC Tournament–South Carolina is hitting a paltry .197/.297/.291 as a team. The Gamecocks are striking out 2.7 times as many times as it walks.
The Gamecocks are averaging 3.3 runs per game, 3.6 walks and 9.7 strikeouts. They have a batting average on balls in play (BABIP) of just .265.
Over the last 15 SEC games (including the tournament), South Carolina hit just .217/.322/.308 as a team. The offense has a .295 BABIP and 148 strikeouts to just 148 walks.
[Get 6 months of GamecockCentral for only $29.99!]
That’s an OPS of .630 in a 17-game league stretch. Through the first six SEC series of the year South Carolina was hitting .269 as a team in SEC play with a .938 OPS.
Those issues came to a head in the final two games of the SEC Tournament. South Carolina mustered just three runs on six hits, struck out 21 times to 13 walks and had just one extra-base hit.
“When you struggle like this, there’s going to be some bouts with how’s my confidence. We’re going to have to walk a fine line as coaches of getting back to the basics and making sure we have our foundation taken care of,” Kingston said. “But also do enough of confidence building through earning it this week of work. So that when we take the field on Friday, we look like that team that was there for 45 games.”
[Get South Carolina baseball news and analysis via email]
Part of the issue has been injuries. But the Gamecocks haven’t been clicking offensively even with the reinsertion of Braylen Wimmer and Talmadge LeCroy back into the lineup.
Multiple key players have gone into slumps over the last month. And the offense hasn’t looked like the juggernaut it was early in the year.
A team built on grinding pitchers down, getting into teams bullpens and wearing opponent pitching staffs down just hasn’t done that over the last month.
In 15 games, South Carolina has allowed the opposing team’s starter to go at least six innings five times. Two of those times he pitched at least seven innings.
That happened just twice in the first 17 games of SEC play.
[Become an NIL supporter of your South Carolina Gamecocks!]
“I wouldn’t say that we’ve tried to get away from the foundation of our offense. Monte (Lee) is very consistent in what he preaches to our guys. It’s very consistent in the preparation, in the scouting reports,” Kingston said. “But the last four weeks, the combination of who we’re rolling out there in our lineup and the pitching we’ve faced has not allowed us to be as good. So that needs to change this week.”
The Gamecocks (39-19) don’t have a ton of time to reinvent the wheel offensively. There are just eight days between being eliminated from the SEC Tournament and a regional starting.
They’ll have to do anything and everything to try and get the offense as close to what it was like when it was humming.
[Subscribe for free to GamecockCentral’s YouTube page!]
“I don’t want it to seem like we’re going to try to insert the wishbone offense here in a pass-happy offense. (The Gamecocks) just need guys healthy. We need Cole (Messina) back, we need (Braylen) Wimmer on the field. We need those things. Clearly. We need those things to be our best team,” Kingston said.
“We need to let them catch their breath a little bit and hope that our bats get a little bit quicker because we’re a little more rested. And we need to get their minds confident again.”
