Mark Kingston 'very proud' of growth in Austin Brinling

This offseason, South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Mark Kingston brought in Austin Brinling as a transfer, hoping to make an impact on the team. It took some time, but now he’s making an impact on the South Carolina lineup.

Kingston recently shared how proud he is of Brinling and what he’s been able to accomplish. In particular, because there was work he needed to do to improve as a player and be able to compete at this level of the sport.

“Very proud because he handled the entire process with nothing but class,” Mark Kingston said. “You love when guys that handle their business properly and get rewarded by the game. So, that’s number one.”

This season, Austin Brinling has played in 19 games. During that time, he has a .356 batting average with a .434 on-base percentage, and a .489 slugging percentage. He has one home run and 10 RBIs on the season to go with two stolen bases.

“Number two, when he came here, we recruited him because he had really good stats. He had a .500 on-base percentage, he hit .386 I think it was last year. That was a guy we thought he could be what he is right now. But he came in with a little bit of a hitch in his swing. And it’s something that he needed to fix. He and our coaches worked very hard on that. You could see in batting practice that it had started to get ironed out,” Kingston said.

“And then one day, we had a live at-bats session where pitchers that needed some innings and hitters that needed some at-bats went out and they faced each other. I think he was 6-for-7 that day. I watched every pitch and how he took the pitches and his quality contact. And I thought this guy deserves a shot. I mean, we need a little spark, maybe this guy will provide that spark, and he sure has.”

In 2023 at North Florida, Austin Brinling was a dominant force. He was named First Team All-Atlantic Sun for the season. In 52 games, he had a .386 batting average, a .500 on-base percentage, and a .540 slugging percentage. He also had three home runs, 31 RBIs, and 20 stolen bases.

“You’re really happy for him. The hitch is gone. The thing that was holding him back with hitting SEC-caliber velocity, because he had a poor fall, he just did. But he made the adjustments and that’s what this game is. It’s about adjustments, it’s about improving minor flaws that may be holding you back. He’s done that and now he’s playing extremely well.”