Mainieri reveals why Talmadge LeCroy and Kennedy Jones were out of lineup on Sunday

After two games in which South Carolina only scored four runs, head coach Paul Mainieri made some lineup changes ahead of the series finale against Clemson on Sunday.

Some of that had to do with wanting to give other players a chance since they’ve been working hard from what he’s seen. In other cases, though, the Gamecocks have been hit by the injury bug, which caused two of their starters to take a seat.

Following an 8-2 loss to the Tigers on Sunday, Mainieri revealed that catcher Talmadge LeCroy and left fielder Kennedy Jones had each suffered injuries.

Mainieri said LeCroy fractured his right thumb, calling it a “pretty significant break,” which took place in the second inning back on Opening Day. Then, his injury reaggravated during Saturday’s loss to Clemson in Greenville.

“When Kennedy threw the base runner out at the plate, even though he was tagging the runner with his left hand, the glove hand, of course, somehow his right hand got in there, and the runner whacked into his right hand and really created a lot of discomfort and pain in his hand yesterday,” Mainieri said.

“So I didn’t even know that his hand was hurting that bad yesterday during the game. He never said anything, but he obviously wasn’t swinging the bat as well as he could think. He struck out three times yesterday. But he couldn’t play today. It was so sore.”

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LeCroy wants to keep playing through the thumb injury, Mainieri said. The plan is to have him undergo another X-ray on Monday to make sure the break hasn’t gotten any worse. But it’s hindered him offensively with him going 3-for-26 (.115) with two doubles and five RBI this season.

“We didn’t even know about it being broken until, probably after this seventh or eighth game of the year,” Mainieri said. “He never said anything. I mean, I knew his hand was hurting, but nobody had any inkling that he had a fracture in his thumb.”

As for Jones, he had hurt his left shoulder sliding headfirst into home plate when he scored on LeCroy’s two-run double on Friday. Mainieri doesn’t know the significance of the injury just yet, but he does know it’s been “real sore.”

“Probably shouldn’t have played him yesterday, but he really wanted to play. But he wasn’t swinging the bat the way that he could yesterday either,” he said of Jones. “… And then today, Kennedy didn’t even take batting practice, and so we had to keep him out.”

Like LeCroy, Jones has also gotten off to a slow start in his senior season. He’s hitting .270 with one homer and five RBI in 37 at-bats. He went 1-for-6 in the two games he played against Clemson.

Moving forward, Mainieri didn’t reveal a timetable for LeCroy and Jones as to when they will be able to play again. What he does know is that not having two of his main hitters in the middle of the order will have an impact on the offense.

“We don’t have that kind of depth of hitters where you lose two guys like that, and you just say, ‘Okay, next man up,'” Mainieri said. “No, guys are trying, but we’re gonna have to evaluate and just kind of see what would be the best thing. I’ll huddle up with Monte (Lee) and try to come up with the best possible solution.”

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