Nick Proctor on the job Mark Kingston has done: 'He's pulling the right strings'
Things are going just about as well as they can right now for South Carolina baseball. The Gamecocks have won six games in a row, with the big highlight being a sweep of Vanderbilt.
And behind all that success is the man at the top, head coach Mark Kingston. While he hasn’t always been perfect, he’s been pushing a lot of the right buttons and getting good results from his team.
The latest highlight for him was picking up his 200th career win as the Gamecocks’ skipper. And while it’s easy to look at the glaring stat — zero trips to the College World Series — there’s reason to believe he’s got South Carolina on the right track.
“I think while it’s easy to be like we didn’t win it all last year, or we lost a series this year like fire Kingston, you’ve kind of just got to assess how the team was a couple years ago and where we are now,” Nick Proctor told GamecockCentral’s Jack Veltri on the latest episode of Jack’s Mailbag. “Now, it’s like South Carolina loses a series, huge upset. South Carolina is definitely trending in the right direction in terms of baseball.”
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Proctor, who pitched at South Carolina last season, knows Kingston about as well as anyone. He can confidently say he’s been doing his job well. At the same time, he also understands there’s a certain expectation of winning in Columbia.
“I know the fan base can be restless at times, I can be too. But I think seeing them trend up in the right direction every year is a big thing,” Proctor said. “I mean, this year, they’re in the top 15 of every poll, and I think they’re going to continue to climb that. The program deserves to be one of the blue bloods of college baseball. I think Kingston’s doing a good job of bringing them back.”
Part of winning comes down to personnel. During this past offseason, Kingston made some changes to his coaching staff, which included bringing on Matt Williams as the pitching coach and Joey Holcomb as an assistant hitting coach.
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And the results? South Carolina has a top-five pitching staff in the SEC. At the plate, the Gamecocks have walked more than anyone in the conference, which has led to the fourth-most runs so far.
That’s without mentioning the impact players Kingston brought in from recruiting. To put it into perspective, Kennedy Jones, a transfer, is the team’s leading hitter (.362). Pitching wise, the top-four pitchers in terms of ERA are all newcomers.
“I think it’s really hard to complain about the job that he’s done,” Proctor said. “He’s done a great job on the recruiting side, he’s done a great job at bringing in the right coaches. And from what I’ve heard, he’s done a great job at replacing Coach (Justin) Parker. … I mean, he’s pulling the right strings.”
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Even with all the moves Kingston has made, it still comes down to whether you win or lose. That’s ultimately how everyone judges coaches and players. But right now, the Gamecocks sit at 20-5 (4-2 SEC) on the year with a lot of season left to play.
“At the end of the day, I think a lot of people also realize that with all these good moves he’s making, if the team goes out and loses a game, Kingston’s not the one on the field that’s losing the game,” Proctor said. “Sure, he’s making the changes and writing the lineup. But I mean, teams have off weekends. It’s hard to win on the road. It’s not always just Kingston’s fault. There’s guys that need to step up and there’s guys that are going to continue to step up. And so I think he’s done a really good job at putting the team in a spot to really make a push this year. So it’s exciting to see what they can do.”
