Mark Kingston updates South Carolina baseball injuries before SEC Tournament
South Carolina remains somewhat of a banged-up team heading down to Hoover for the SEC Tournament.
The Gamecocks are in the midst of a tough end-of-season stretch, having lost four straight series and going 4-11 in their final 15 games after sweeping Florida in mid-April.
And injuries have played somewhat of a part, but South Carolina is getting closer and closer to healthier.
[Get 6 months of GamecockCentral for only $29.99!]
Mark Kingston, meeting with the media before his team left for the tournament gave an update to Will Sanders and Noah Hall along with Braylen Wimmer.
Sanders–who has missed the last two starts with a lower-body injury–likely won’t pitch in Hoover this week but Kingston said South Carolina is “very optimistic” he’ll be available once the Gamecocks get into a regional.
“He’s been throwing very regularly ever since he stopped pitching in games,” Kingston said. “But he has been throwing and his goal and our goal is that he’s available for the NCAAs.”
Kingston said Hall hasn’t resumed any sort of baseball activity since injuring his back against Mississippi State and seems like he won’t pitch again this season.
Wimmer, though, will be in the Gamecocks’ lineup but where remains the conundrum. Since returning to the lineup after a hamstring injury he’s only been the designated hitter, but Kingston mentioned they were toying with putting him back in the field in some capacity.
That’s not set in stone, but the Gamecocks could or could opt to still DH him to protect him some.
“He’s the toughest decision we’ll have in terms of defense. Because when he’s out there, I think it’s our best defense when he’s able to be on the field. He’s one of our best nine athletes, clearly, probably our best athlete. So when he’s on defense, it makes us a better team,” Kingston said.
“But again, when we play the NCAAs next Friday, I want to know that he can steal bases and he can have his full range. And so that’s going to be one of the tougher decisions of whether to play him on defense this week or to just continue to protect him a little bit so that he’s not playing an 80 percent come NCAA time.”
If Wimmer does move back to the infield, it could move a left-handed bat like Carson Hornung’s back into the lineup. Hornung’s not played the last few weeks with Wimmer as the DH and he’s the team leader in walks and on-base percentage.
“Carson’s best value to us is with the bat, not on defense. He’s a little bit limited. He’s been dealing with the foot injury for a lot of the year so that’s what’s kind of kept him out of the lineup. But I agree against right-handed hitters, especially,” Kingston said.
“His splits are pretty significant in terms of right versus left and significantly better against righties and lefties. So when we play a righty and Wimmer is able to be on defense, that obviously opens up the DH spot with him as a possibility.”
Chris Veach will make the trip to Hoover after being available in an emergency-only situation last week against Tennessee. He’s been dealing with a hip injury.
The sixth-seeded Gamecocks begin SEC play Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. ET playing No. 11-seed Georgia in an elimination game.
South Carolina swept the Bulldogs to open SEC play, coming from behind to beat the Bulldogs in game one then run-ruling them in each of the next two games.
[Become an NIL supporter of your South Carolina Gamecocks!]
Georgia’s played better of late, albeit with a lean record, taking series from Arkansas and Tennessee over the last few weekends. Those series wins happened at home, though.
A win and South Carolina advances to play No. 3-seeded LSU in the first game of the double-elimination portion of the bracket.
The Gamecocks would also be guaranteed a game on Thursday against one of the other three teams in the bracket: No. 2 Arkansas, No. 7 Tennessee and No. 10 Texas A&M.
[Subscribe for free to GamecockCentral’s YouTube page!]
“You’ve got to thread the needle on it. You know, you’ve got to try to make sure that by next week we’re healthy in all the spots we need to be healthy. Especially with the key guys that have been a big part of when we’re at our best,” Kingston said about injuries.
“But you also want to play the game to win. As Herm Edwards says, you play to win the game. So we’re going to play to win the games and just try to do the best we can and win the game, but also make sure the guys are 100 percent for next week.”
