Hard work paying off for Josiah Sightler

Josiah Sightler twisted his body as the pitch sped toward the plate. His weight shifted, his feet turned and the bat did the rest of the work for South Carolina’s slugger.

As the ball cleared the fence at Texas A&M’s Blue Bell Park, Sightler’s limp was noticeable. It made what was his 11th home run of the year that much more impressive.

Not only was he swinging the bat the best he ever has in four collegiate seasons, he’s doing it on one ankle.

“Just imagine what if he was healthy,” Chad Caillet said. “Is it a surprise he’s doing this? No. It’s not. We knew it was in him and just had to get it out of him. But my god what if he’s healthy right now? What kind of numbers would he be putting up? Holy cow.”

Sightler’s been dealing with not only a severe ankle sprain—which he says is about 80 percent now—but an elbow injury that kept him off the mound almost all season.

Despite hitting on one leg, his emergence offensively for South Carolina completes a nearly full-circle moment after a career marred by strife and tribulations his first three seasons.

It took a while for Sightler to get to where he is now.

The left-handed bat with the prototypical size scouts look for turned down money to enroll at South Carolina, putting a professional career on the back burner to get better in college.

But it wasn’t easy early. Sightler hit just 2-for-30 with 18 strikeouts in his first year with the Gamecocks.

He stuck it out, opting to stay with the program that offseason. And, after just three at-bats in a COVID shortened 2020, Sightler got to work.

“I look back on it and I’ve come a long way since then. That’s something I tell the freshmen,” Sightler said. “Eventually things are going to click for you. When they do, take full advantage. Don’t worry about right now. Keep putting in the work and good things will happen.”

He had a better year in 2021, slashing .268/.352/.437 with seven home runs and 31 RBI but there was still another level he could get to.

It wasn’t until new hitting coach Caillet arrived at South Carolina this offseasons and began working with the lefty when things began to take off.

Sightler spent the majority of his third year choked up on the bat. This year he slid his hands back down the knob.

“Honestly, the reason I started choking up is cause last fall I could not hit. I was still struggling and still getting beat by 90. I was like, ‘All right, I’m just going to Barry Bonds this and see what happens.’ It ended up working out for me,” Sightler said.

“This year, I started struggling again. Some of the guys were giving a hard time telling me I’m losing some leverage. Then I was like, ‘Let’s go back to the hand on the knob in the good ole high school days.’ Things started working out for me.”

The next step was just to trust the lever created by all 6-foot-5, 234 pounds of steam headed towards the baseball.

“He has that dog in him, he wants to be great. He has that desire to be great. That’s something you just can’t teach,” Caillet said. “It was just a matter of getting him confident and trusting his ability and trusting his lever and strength instead of trying to mechanically force it to happen.”

And it’s working for him and for the Gamecocks.

The tweaks he really started to implement with Caillet began right as the Missouri series started. Since then he’s on an incredible tear.

Over his last 66 at-bats in the SEC Sightler is hitting .363/.432/.803. He’s homering every 8.3 at-bats with 18 RBI and 16 runs scored.

Caillet laughed when he was told Sightler’s obnoxiously good slash line, admitting he goes by more of an eye test than what the numbers say. But both back up the same point for South Carolina’s hitter.

“It’s remarkable what he’s doing with his health status,” Caillet said. “To ask him to do more is virtually impossible.”

And, by all accounts, it couldn’t be happening to a better person.

His teammates consider Sightler one of the best clubhouse presences on the team and an infectious personality.

For him to be having the year he is, especially in SEC play, is certainly beneficial for a South Carolina. The Gamecocks needing someone like him to step up in the middle of the order.

Over 24 SEC games Sightler is second on the team in average (.325) and on base percentage (.409) and RBI (19). He’s leading in home runs (8), doubles (6) and slugging (.714).

For Caillet, he falls back on Sightler’s humility to allow the newly-hired coach to really get in and work with him.

Sightler one of the best people Chad Caillet’s ever coached and an elite team player, South Carolina’s recruiting coordinator said.  

“It’s the hardest part of all of this,” Caillet said about Sightler trusting him. “He didn’t get off to the start he wanted. He had the injury with the elbow and there’s a lot of stuff going on with him mentally. But it goes to show you the character of the kid and the makeup of the kid…I couldn’t be happier.”

What’s next for Sightler in terms of his professional options remains to be seen. A year like this certainly helps his draft stock, but he has a year of eligibility left if he wants it.

Sightler grew up in South Carolina and plays now 25 minutes from his hometown of Gaston, and after biding his time after opting to go to college, it seems to all be clicking for him.

“Definitely staying in-state and going to school 25 minutes from home means a lot. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs here. I definitely feel like it’s going to translate more to the real world when my baseball career is over,” he said. “To me, when I look back on it, it was the right decision to turn it down out of high school and go through my struggles.”