Has South Carolina found its new leadoff hitter? Austin Brinling makes most of newfound opportunity
For most of this season, Austin Brinling sat on the bench and watched on from the dugout. As one of the first players to transfer to South Carolina last summer, this probably wasn’t what he had in mind.
It’s been a season of many lows for the junior outfielder. He struggled mightily in the fall and had been used sparingly throughout the regular season. But just when he least expected it, his opportunity finally came.
“I hit live on Wednesday, did really well and got told there’s a chance that I could be playing. Thursday, got told I would be starting and just went from there,” Brinling said.
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Brinling, who only had one at-bat as a Gamecock heading into last weekend, was set to make his first start of the year.
But it would come against one of the best teams in the country in Arkansas. And he would be facing left-hander Hagen Smith, who has arguably been the best pitcher in college baseball this season.
In the days leading up to last Friday’s series opener, Brinling didn’t have much time to think about the opportunity in front of him and the journey it took to get here. He started to watch some tape on Smith to get a scouting report on him. But he’d only end up watching one video and nothing more.
“I thought about it for a little bit. … Didn’t want to watch anymore because that usually will diminish your confidence,” Brinling said. “I only had two at-bats coming into that game and felt like I had nothing to lose. He’s one of the best guys and a lot of people do get out from him. The expectations aren’t very high but if you do something cool then it’s pretty awesome. You get to tell a lot of people that. I had a lot of confidence going into it and just had a screw it mentality.”
When he came up to the plate for the first time, the nerves were certainly high. But he settled in and got ahead in the count against Smith and drew a walk.
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Not even a minute after he had made it to first base, Smith picked off Brinling. Just like that, he was already heading back to the dugout.
“Yeah, it’s definitely pretty difficult,” Brinling said. “But if you have enough confidence in yourself that you can compete with anyone in the country, then it is kind of like riding a bike. I’ve been playing for five years. I know who I am, I know I can be really good. I just had to show it.”
Rather than focus on the negative of what just happened, Brinling moved on and tried to focus on what he could do next. And from there, his play improved.
Brinling started all three games against Arkansas and went 5-for-10 at the plate with three walks and two RBIs. He did exactly what head coach Mark Kingston expected him to do. And moving forward, it seems South Carolina might’ve found its new leadoff hitter, at least for this weekend.
“I always keep an open mind with players of this age because you just never know when one adjustment can get a guy going and turn his whole season around,” Kingston said. “So he did exactly what we wanted to he gave us quality at-bats. He got big hits, he took his walks. He played good defense in the outfield. So he looks this weekend like the guy we recruited last summer.”
