Mark Kingston discusses South Carolina pitching philosophy in regional play
South Carolina is one day away from playing postseason baseball at Founders Park for the first time in two years.
The Gamecocks will begin play in the Columbia regional against Central Connecticut State Friday night.
One of the biggest questions heading into the tournament is how they’ll manage the pitching staff. South Carolina has yet to name a starter for game one.
“Somebody that’s on our roster,” Kingston said, jokingly. “As soon as we know who our opponent is throwing, you’ll know who we’re throwing.”
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It’s not as simple as just throwing the best arm, though. There are a lot of hypotheticals and playing matchups that go into South Carolina’s decision-making.
“There are all types of ways to set yourself up. It’s like CarPlay. You’ve got to try to win your hand and make moves that affect the entire weekend,” Kingston said. “So there are times you have the first pick in the draft and you’re just gonna roll with him on Friday because you’re a two seed, sometimes you’re a one seed, and you think it’s worth the risk to save that guy for game two.”
Regardless of who’s in the other dugout, Kingston said they’ll play it “pretty straight up” and weigh out all the pitching options.
“I think they all make sense. And they all require some type of risk. Sometimes you’re risking for the first game a little bit. Sometimes you’re risking not having your best guy to center. It all requires a little risk,” Kingston said. “But as I’ve told these guys, we’re going to play when this regional best we can. We’re not going to hold back. And we’re not complacent here. So we’ll make the decisions we make give us the best chance to win a regional.”
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One name that won’t be an option as a starter for South Carolina is Will Sanders. He hasn’t pitched since May 5 when he went five innings of four-run ball against Kentucky. Since then, he’s been tending to a lower-body injury that’s kept him out for the end of the regular season and SEC Tournament.
But Kingston said Sanders will be available out of the bullpen this weekend, with the chance to pitch in multiple games.
“Pretty much everything’s on the table other than asking him to throw 100 pitches in one outing as a starter,” he said. “But we’ll use him as we see fit where we think it makes the most sense. I think you could see him more than once this weekend potentially.
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Besides Sanders, the rest of the staff is in good shape. The Gamecocks suffered a handful of injuries down the stretch but have seen some arms step up and pitch well in big spots.
“The fact that we have so much pitching depth is what’s allowed us to be here today. If we didn’t have the pitching depth we did. We may not be hosting, we may not be in the NCAA Tournament,” Kingston said. “We had weekend starters pitching out of the bullpen. That’s how good we were. Eli Jones the whole time, Matthew Becker the whole time, (James) Hicks. These are guys that have pitched up the bullpen for us that are more than capable of being a good weekend starter.”
“So that’s where our depth started. Once we had guys going down and we had to move them in, they allowed us to keep our heads above water and still be here today. So to me, that’s one of the keys to us being able to have this second chance.”
South Carolina will face Central Connecticut State at 7 p.m. Friday night on ESPN Plus. The Blue Devils will start their No. 2 starter, left-hander Jake Neuman against the Gamecocks. He’s 6-2 with a 4.65 ERA in 71.2 innings this year.
If the Gamecocks lose Friday, they’ll play at noon Saturday while a win puts them at 6 p.m. Saturday night.
