South Carolina going 'back to the basics' after having hitters meeting
Change was imminent. You don’t just get beat by your arch rival, lose in the way you did, and not make any adjustments.
After getting back from Clemson, it was time for a reality check. South Carolina, who had struggled all weekend to drive runners home, had a hard conversation. Led by Mark Kingston, all players and coaches took part in a hitters meeting on Tuesday.
“Just approach, a lot of approach. I think we’ve gotten a little too pull-happy as of late. And a lot of that is how our hitters are preparing,” Kingston said on what the meeting entailed. “Coaches were all in the office yesterday talking about what can we do to help these guys? And it was really a back to the basics approach. We met with the players today and just let them know what has always been our foundation, especially since Monte (Lee) got here last year, that really has been pushing that hard. We’re really just going to make sure that we’re continuing to prepare them with that foundation in mind. And that’s using the whole field consistently.”
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The plan was rather simple. Use all parts of the field to get on base instead of swinging for the fences. And in their first chance to do so, the Gamecocks picked up a 7-1 win over The Citadel on Tuesday.
It was a much more characteristic night for South Carolina. The offense drew 11 walks and scored its runs without hitting a single home run.
“I’d say it helped the offense a lot just kind of going back to the basics. Going back to our approach, trying to wear down pitchers and try to hit the ball to the opposite field as hard as we can,” LeCroy said.
“Just trying to hit the ball the other way and I was just trying to back the balls up, trying to see the ball as long as I can. Just trying to set the tone for the rest of the guys and let them know that we can do it.”
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One player who used the whole field to his advantage was Talmadge LeCroy, who had multiple hits to the opposite field. As a result, he finished 3-for-4, coming up a home run shy of the cycle.
But it was far from a perfect game. The Gamecocks left 13 runners on base and struck out 14 times. They also went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left the bases loaded in multiple innings.
“It’s a work in progress for us. There’s no question about that. We’re not going to hide from it,” Kingston said. “That’s an area we know we need to improve on. It’s going to be a big part of what is our approach in all of our at-bats, not just RBI at-bats. And so I think it will carry over. But it’s not going to happen overnight. We get on base a lot, now we just need to make that next step and get over that hump of getting those guys in pretty consistently.”
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While it wasn’t a fantastic performance, it was the start of wiping the slate clean and moving forward. South Carolina knows there’s still plenty of season ahead. And the players know they’ve got a chance to do a lot of good things the rest of the way.
“It’s in the rearview window now. We’re going straight ahead, we’re not worried about that. I mean, we’re not worried about anything,” LeCroy said. “We know we have one of the best offenses in the country and we definitely have the best pitching staff in the country by far. We’re going to figure it out.”
