Kingston believes Will Tippett's offense will catch up with his glove soon enough
As the 1-0 pitch came out of Roman Kimball’s hand, North Carolina’s Casey Cook just got under it and lifted a high pop up into the night sky.
Off the bat, it looked like it would be an easy second out of the inning. But as Will Tippett kept back pedaling, the ball continued to hang in the air until he was left without many options. So he turned to his right side and laid out to make a diving grab in shallow left center field. Tippett quickly jumped to his feet and screamed out “Let’s go!” in the process.
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It’s plays like these that continue to force Mark Kingston to pencil his name into the starting lineup everyday. Despite his offense not being effective, Tippett is doing other things to help South Carolina win games.
“Will Tippett’s in the lineup right now because he plays elite defense, both in terms of consistency and range,” Kingston said. “He’s a leader out there on defense, he’s kind of a nice centerpiece along with Cole Messina when they’re both playing.”
When Tippett gets on base, he can be a usual threat to run. He actually leads the Gamecocks with 11 stolen bases in 12 attempts so far this year. Factor that in with the guys hitting around him and it’s a good formula to try and score runs.
“It’s an elite number at this point in the season,” Kingston said on the stolen bags. “So from a base running standpoint, from a defense standpoint, he’s an elite player.”
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Offensively speaking is where the shortstop has always lacked since coming to South Carolina. After hitting just .182 last year, Tippett has arguably taken a step back in 2023. He’s hitting .143 with one homer and 15 RBIs. And he’s struck out 39 times in 91 at-bats. At this rate, he’s on pace to strike out more than he did last year.
But despite offense being a big part of baseball, Kingston still believes in Tippett to get things right. While his bat hasn’t caught up with his glove or speed just yet, he thinks it’ll come together soon enough.
“The offense is not what he or what we want at this point,” he said. “But it’s not to the point where we think the negatives outweigh the positives in terms of his contribution to us winning games.
“So as long as we think he’s doing more to help us win games, then we’re going to continue to run them out there. And at some point, I think he’ll start to swing the bat better. He works too hard not to, he’s too athletic not to. Just hasn’t happened yet. But it doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future.”
