South Carolina believes to have 'found something' with Eli Jones to correct recent struggles
Whenever Eli Jones heads into a start, he has a simple goal in mind. He wants to get the first batter out within three pitches. That’s when he knows he can start to pitch effectively.
“Minimize that pitch count and try and give the team as many outs as I can and limit damage,” Jones said. “When I’m at my best, it’s limiting damage and keeping our team in a position to win the game.”
But over his last few outings, that hasn’t been the case. Jones, a usual anchor and leader of South Carolina’s pitching staff hasn’t looked like himself on the mound. Since April 27, he has pitched to a 15.90 ERA and been unable to pitch deep into games.
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In his start against Georgia last Friday, the right-hander worked to get the first eight outs of the game without much damage. But everything fell apart after that, as he finished his day giving up seven runs on 10 hits.
Jones said it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly the issue has been for him lately. He’s shown he can be a capable pitcher in the SEC, at times even the ace of the rotation. But something hasn’t looked right.
“Early in the season, I was much better limiting the big inning and leaving runners on base. As of late, I haven’t been great at that,” Jones said. “Obviously, that’s something we’re working for and we’re trying to find something that works, whether that’s physically in my mechanics, mentally. We’re doing everything we can to limit those big innings and continue to get deeper into games for the team and get more outs for the team so we can win baseball games.”
But it seems South Carolina is inching closer to discovering what the problem has been and how to fix it. Mark Kingston said pitching coach Matt Williams believes he “found something” that him and Jones have been working on before heading to Tennessee on Wednesday.
“We’re hopeful that the adjustment that they’re making will pay dividends and get him back to where he was when he was a Friday night starter,” Kingston said. “Because at the end of the day, I believe deep in my heart if we can get a lot of these guys to just play close to their full capacity, we can and will beat anybody in the country. But we have to get them there. We need Eli to be the Friday night type starter. We need all these guys to hit the way they’re capable. And we need our pitchers to be at the top of their game. If we do that, that’s how you get hot when it really matters.”
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What the coaching staff and Jones learned remains to be seen. Neither him or Kingston dove into specifics on the adjustment being made. But come this weekend, it should come to light when Jones takes the mound against the No. 1-ranked Volunteers.
“We’re working on some things and trying to find what’s going on,” Jones said. “And we think we’re on to a little bit of something. We’ll see obviously when it changes when a hitter gets in there. At this point, we’re just going to try and work it out and do whatever we can to get as many outs as possible.”
