Mark Kingston ponders biggest challenges as SEC baseball coach

The South Carolina baseball team started the 2023 SEC Baseball Tournament off with a bang, downing Georgia 9-0 on the first day’s action to move onto the double-elimination portion of the tournament.

But it was short-lived.

South Carolina suffered back-to-back losses, first to LSU and then to Texas A&M, to exit the SEC Tournament, instead relegated to awaiting its NCAA Tournament fate. Coach Mark Kingston marveled at how difficult the Southeastern Conference is after his team’s second loss of the week.

“Yeah, it’s extremely tough. I mean, I think that goes without saying,” he said. “But I think the best way you could sum up what this league is — and I say this with all due respect to two guys that I consider friends and consider very excellent coaches — the two defending national champions didn’t make the SEC Tournament this week.”

Two years after winning the national title, Mississippi State and coach Chris Lemonis finished second-to-last in the SEC standings. And one year removed from a national title, Ole Miss and coach Mike Bianco finished dead last in the league.

Some of that, sure, is due to turnover after such a successful season.

However, a significant chunk of it is also just about how strong top to bottom SEC baseball is. In the latest Field of 64 projections from D1Baseball, four SEC teams are projected to be top-eight seeds and Super Regional hosts, while three others are projected to be NCAA Regional hosts.

“What else do you need to know about our league? What else do you need to know?” Kingston said. “It is a dogfight every week. It’s the best players. It’s the best coaches. It’s the best environments. It’s hell on wheels on the road to try to win games. It’s hard. It’s hard.

“Nobody goes through it unscathed. I think there’s an effect that it takes on a team having to be on your ‘A’ game every single weekend that I think hopefully pays off for a lot of us as we get to the NCAA Tournament.”

So while South Carolina would have liked to win a few more games in the SEC Baseball Tournament, possibly pushing toward a top-eight national seed, that’s just kind of life.

Kingston knows it, and he’s hopeful it means his team is even more prepared for the true postseason.

“This is the toughest league in America for players and coaches alike. The scrutiny, the media attention, fans being on you all the time, you have to be built for it,” he said. “You have to be built for it, and I think generally if you earn your way into this league, you are built for it. But it’s the hardest league in America. It’s always a challenge. If you’re not on top of your game from a talent, a health and approach standpoint, it’ll just eat you alive.

“Again, Lemonis and Bianco are two of the best in the business, and they’re not here this weekend because this league is so tough. That’s the best way I can explain this league to you.”