South Carolina looks to stop speedy Kentucky on the base paths
One of South Carolina’s keys to success ahead of No. 4 Kentucky is preventing stolen bases. The Wildcats are a fast and aggressive offense and base running team.
“The first thing that jumps off the page with them is stolen bases,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “You have to be ready for the stolen bases.”
Kentucky checks in at No. 23 in the NCAA and first in the SEC with 81 stolen bases this season. In order to win, South Carolina has prepared a plan to limit the amount stolen over the weekend. This means catchers Cole Messina and Dalton Reeves will have their work cut out for them.
However, Kingston has made it aware to his team that this could make the difference in winning a game.
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“I think there’s certain things that you just do in general to try to minimize the stolen base against you,” Kingston said. “But I think you probably need to have a little bit more heightened awareness. You need to make sure the other team knows that you’re going to be aware that that’s one of their weapons.”
Emilien Pitre leads Kentucky in stolen bases with 19. Ryan Waldschmidt and Devin Burkes follow Pitre with 14 stolen bases each. The Gamecocks will have different strategies in place to try and cut those numbers down.
“Does that mean we pick off more? Does that mean we’re quicker to the plate and use more slide steps? It’ll be a little bit of everything but just know that we are aware of it and we will be prepared,” Kingston said.
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From a pitching standpoint, aggressive base running leads to a need for more situational awareness on the mound. In addition, limiting runners on base from a pitching stand point is crucial this weekend.
“It’s just something to think about,” pitcher Matthew Becker said. “I mean you’re always going to face those teams that like to run, like to do some small ball things and that’s kind of who they’ve been historically. So obviously we’re preparing for that, mostly just like kind of being inconsistent with our looks.”
For Becker, who has an advantage of holding runners closer to the bag as a left-hander, he knows him and the other pitchers have to be precise and pitch efficiently.
“Keeping them on their heels and stuff then being quick to the plate when we do turn their head,” Becker said. “When you’re going you’re going and kind of keeping them from getting that little extra lead and maybe even stealing.”
