Gamecocks' Mark Kingston updates team after two weeks of scrimmages

South Carolina baseball is through two weeks of preseason scrimmages and just over 10 days away from getting things started for real.

The Gamecocks are in the process now of evaluating and figuring out which players will have key roles and Sunday Mark Kingston met with the media to update the status of his team.

On the good and bad through two weeks for South Carolina:

“Like all teams right now we’re a work in progress. I thought our two starting pitchers today gave us the kind of outings we needed to see to day. That was good to see. I think our hitters need to do a better job the last couple days. When its’ cold they need to battle better than they did. Three days ago we had five home runs on the day. Every time you play an intrasquad it’s going to be, ‘Is it the pitchers? Is it the hitters?’ we just need to continue getting better and figuring this thing out.”

On Cade Austin’s emergence for the Gamecocks:

“Cade’s going to be getting really important innings. He’s come a long way. Last year he was a redshirt but now he’s pitching the way we want our guys to pitch. He’s attacking the strike zone, throws a lot of strikes, throws multiple pitches for strikes and works quickly so the defense plays well behind him. He’s working his way into a good role.”

On figuring out who will start:

“We have probably seven guys right now that have earned starting positions and looking at the last couple spots to see who’s going to round out that lineup.”

On clarity in South Carolina’s outfield:

“You only have three outfield spots but we have more than that capable of starting. It just depends if you want defense, if you want offense, if you want left or right. There are a lot of different options. We’ve been playing (Brandt) Belk out there lately and we know (Braylen) Wimmer can go out there. I would say the outfield is still something we’re looking at.”

On Cole Messina’s progress after elbow surgery:

“A couple weeks away. He’s able to do defense now, he’s not throwing yet and hasn’t started swinging but that will be sometime this week I’m anticipating…He may or may not be ready for opening day but it won’t be far after that.”

On standout Gamecock newcomers this preseason:

“(Matt) Becker threw well today and he’s going to have an impact for us as a freshman pitcher. I think all the freshman hitters have shown they see the ball pretty well and can give you good at-bats. Transfers, obviously Belk and (Kevin) Madden are going to be in the lineup. Then (Matt) Hogan is fighting to get in the lineup. We’ll have a pretty good impact from the new guys.”

On progress offensively for South Carolina:

“We hit five homers the other day and the last couple days the pitchers have done a nice job and made improvements. There have been bad days to hit in there. But like we said we’re going to have some bad days to hit in there. I know coach (Chad) Caillet will work hard in making these guys understand what it takes.”

On a bounce back performance from James Hicks:

“He made some adjustments. The great thing about having new guys and all the resources we have with the pitching coach and trackman, you can start to figure out what guys get hit on and what guys have success with. Because of that, what kind of adjustments do they need to make?

“Is the ball running when it should be sinking? Is he throwing more four-seamers than two-seamers? The combination of our pitching coach figuring out how these guys can be effective is important and I thought he made some nice progress.”