Report: South Carolina pitching coach Justin Parker leaving for Mississippi State
South Carolina is losing its pitching coach to another SEC school as Justin Parker is headed to Mississippi State, according to the Mississippi State 247Sports site.
Parker spent the past two seasons in Columbia and did an excellent job, helping South Carolina host and win a regional in the NCAA Tournament this year.
The Gamecocks went 42-21 on the season and had an excellent pitching staff that finished with a team ERA of 4.19.
Prior to joining the South Carolina program, Parker was at Indiana for three seasons. He joins a Mississippi State squad that finished that finished 27-26 in 2023.
Parker had an excellent season with the Gamecocks, despite having several members of his pitching staff who were banged up throughout the year. Ace Will Sanders was one of several players who missed time in 2023.
In Parker’s first season in Columbia in 2022, South Carolina had several pitchers who were banged up. Still, the Gamecocks had 501 strikeouts in 479 innings pitched.
As mentioned, Parker did an excellent job at Indiana. In his last season there in 2021, the Hoosiers had a team ERA of 3.17. Indiana pitchers struck out 462 batters in 383 1/3 innings pitched.
Four pitchers from that Indiana team were selected in the 2021 MLB Draft, including McCade Brown, who was selected in the third round by the Colorado Rockies and Gabe Bierman, picked in the seventh round by the Miami Marlins.
Mark Kingston believes South Carolina was one of the eight best teams in the country
Justin Parker and South Carolina didn’t make it to Omaha this past season, but Gamecocks head coach Mark Kingston still believes his team was one of the eight best in the country.
“We showed that we have the ability still to be one of the best programs in the country, and until we had some adversity we were. Sometimes the best teams don’t get to Omaha. I think we’re one of the best eight teams in the country,” Kingston said following South Carolina’s final game of the season.
Kingston very well may be right. South Carolina was fantastic in the Columbia Regional, outscoring its opponents 41-11 in a clean three-game sweep. Unfortunately for the Gamecocks, that hot streak didn’t roll over into Super Regionals.
The team went 0-2 against Florida to end their season. In the elimination game, South Carolina failed to score, falling 4-0 to the Gators. Kingston believes the Gamecocks’ unfortunate end was the outcome of uncontrollable circumstances.
“Because of some things that happened, we had to come on the road for a super regional against a team that has a good chance to win the national championship,” Kingston said. “It doesn’t mean that we’re not one of the elite teams in the country. It just means that we faced them this weekend instead of maybe in Omaha, which could’ve happened had we been able to stay the course like it looked like we were for a long time.”