Mark Kingston high on South Carolina's portal additions
When Mark Kingston met with the media last week, he couldn’t talk about any of South Carolina’s incoming transfers by name.
But that didn’t stop him from gushing about them in a roundabout way, thinking the Gamecocks are bringing in a host of impact players.
“We went in the portal with a few ideas of where we wanted to attack. We wanted to attack proven performers. Then we wanted to approach guys who were high-end guys a year or two but for whatever reason, the light hasn’t gone on but they’re filled with talent,” Kingston said.
“Maybe a change of scenery or a new voice might spark that talent…Sometimes a change of scenery can really help guys. Those are the areas we’re targeting.”
The Gamecocks have brought in eight public transfers to date, largely focusing on production at the plate.
South Carolina’s picked up six bats in this portal class who’ve slashed a combined .277/.359/.483 with 37 home runs and 183 RBI this yaer. They’ve struck out a combined 219 times to 93 walks in 988 plate appearances.
Of those, two hit over .320 last season: Caleb Denny (Oral Roberts) and Chris Veach (Presbyterian).
Gavin Casas (Vanderbilt) slashed .294/.381/.412 with 14 RBI last season before a knee injury. Memphis’s Jacob Compton hit .291 last year as part of an all-league season in the American.
South Carolina’s offense will rely on almost all of them to try and get back on track after a tough 2022.
Right now South Carolina has two portal pitchers committed in Cal’s Nick Proctor and Clemson’s Ricky Williams.
Proctor had a solid year out of the bullpen with a 4.10 ERA and 1.21 WHIP, striking out 48 to 10 walks. Williams pitched sparingly in ACC play but ended the year with a 2.95 ERA in 21.1 innings. He had a 1.45 WHIP and struck out 12.
“The pitching and the hitting need to improve for different reasons. As we put together a team and look through our depth chart,” Kingston said, “We look at the guys who are potential impact players and look at guys who are potential role players. I think we can improve in every area of our team based off last year’s team.”
Going into the offseason the Gamecocks knew the portal would be a heavy piece of roster building.
South Carolina needed to improve drastically after a below-.500 season, which means aggressively attacking the portal.
The goal is to bolster the offense. Then support the returning pitchers and get the Gamecocks back to contending for Omaha.
“It has to be for everybody, mostly for the team that want to make bigger improvements. Some programs will have to rely on it more than other programs,” Kingston said.
“Where we are right now, we might have to rely on it more than we will a year from now or two years from now. Where we are right now, we felt we needed to be very aggressive in the portal.”
It still remains to be seen how much the Gamecocks can improve with a bevy of portal additions. But Kingston likes where things stand currently.
“We’re signing really good names out of the portal that are really going to help us. They’re filling what our needs are,” Kingston said. “They’re filling what our wants are in terms of taking it to where we want it to be.”
