Mark Kingston explains changes made to South Carolina's weekend rotation

Even through 37 games, Mark Kingston still believes South Carolina hasn’t reached its full potential yet. Until that happens, he’ll tweak and maneuver pieces as he sees fit to get the best results.

And that couldn’t have been more evident when he announced his weekend rotation versus Arkansas on Thursday afternoon. Roman Kimball will start on Friday, Eli Jones on Saturday and TBA on Sunday.

It’s a big change from the norm for the Gamecocks as Jones had been the usual Friday starter. But after that, it was always a mystery entering the weekend of who would start the other two games.

“At the end of the day, what’s most important is we have all this figured out by the end of the season when the games are win or go home. And so we’re going to continue to experiment until we feel like we have it 100 percent. I just don’t feel like we’re there yet. Instead of being scared to staying tied to one thing, we’re going to try things and see if we can find the best version of ourselves,” Kingston said.

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“Some guys, just for whatever reason, are better as starters than relievers and vice versa. And so we’ll continue to evaluate ourselves. We’re 37 games in, so we have a better idea of who we are. But we don’t have a full picture yet of what the best version of us is. So we’re going to continue to try things until we really feel like we have it exactly where we want it.”

When it came to landing on Jones to start Saturday, the decision had nothing to do with looking for a better matchup. Had he started on Friday, he’d be going up against Arkansas left-hander Hagen Smith, who happens to be one of the best pitchers in college baseball.

Instead, it’s about getting the most out of Jones while giving the team the best chance to win the weekend.

“Eli has been the pitcher that gives us the most length on the weekends of all our starters. And genuinely, you would like to have that in the middle game so that your bullpen can be really good on Friday, have a day off and then go on Sunday,” Kingston said. “So it’s something we’ve been talking about. We have a lot of respect for Hagen Smith. But that’s not why this decision was made. We made it because we think it’s the best use of our resources that hopefully will help us win the most amount of games.”

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As for Friday, Kingston said he considered a handful of arms to start on the bump. But he knows some guys are better suited for pitching in relief.

“We considered a lot of guys, a lot of guys have shown us bursts that they can do it,” he said. “But we also have a lot of guys statistically that had been much more successful out of the bullpen. And so we’re just trying to find the best roles for the most amount of guys.”

So he felt the best about going with Kimball, who has been pitching much better recently. He made the weekend rotation at the start of the year but moved to the bullpen after going through some struggles. It’s taken some time but it seems he’s been able to command the zone more efficiently and pitch with confidence again.

“Roman gets the nod because he has a .169 opponents batting average, which is the best on our team,” Kingston said. “He’s been the hardest guy to hit on our team. And his last four outings have been very good. So we’re going with him because we think he gives us a chance to win.”

Sunday is where things become a lot more unclear. South Carolina will have plenty of options to choose from as to who makes that start. Depending on how the series goes, it could be a very important game to pitch in. But for Kingston, the first thing it comes down to is who hasn’t pitched yet.

“We have a lot of resources, the (Ty) Good’s, the (Matthew) Becker’s, those types of guys. Do you need them to win a game on Friday or Saturday? And if you do, you use them. And if you don’t, then they become a candidate to start on Sunday,” Kingston said. “(Tyler) Pitzer is in that category as well. We’ve got a lot of swing guys that can do both. So you decide if the game is of the balance and you want to use one of your best guys, then you do it. And you just know that means somebody else will have to start on Sunday.”

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