Mark Kingston: 'There's a lot of reasons for optimism' for South Carolina baseball's offense
Minutes after South Carolina’s season-ending loss to Virginia, Mark Kingston didn’t mince words about what needed to improve.
“We just strike out too much,” he said, matter-of-factly.
An inconsistent offense hampered South Carolina last season, ending the year in a regional as a two-seed. The Gamecocks spent the offseason making sure that side of the ball gets better
“I think it’s going to be a really well-balanced offense. We’ll have some power bats but have some guys who will put the ball in play,” Andrew Eyster said.
“I think we’re going to be an easy 10-hit a game team. But we’re going to be more dynamic on our offense not just at the plate when it comes to base running and baseball IQ. Then I think most of the development is going to come from another year of development.”
The Gamecocks last year ranked next to last the SEC in both batting average and on base percentage. They paired it with 545 strikeouts, fifth-most in the league.
Their batting average on balls in play—a metric designed to measure offensive efficiency when not hitting home runs or striking out—was just .298.
The offense will be managed by Chad Caillet, the Gamecocks new hitting coach, and players like what he’s brought to the table.
“With him, he’s big on approach. That’s one thing I’d say is different this year. We’re hunting for a pitch in a particular spot and if we don’t get it we’re spitting on it,” Josiah Sightler said. “Guys are a lot more comfortable being behind in counts. We’re comfortable hitting with two strikes.”
The goal is to be well rounded—hitting for contact, moving runners, better situational hitting—and the Gamecocks think they can do it.
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“I think we’re not going to rely on the home runs as much as we did last year,” Colin Burgess said. “We’re going to strikeout a little bit less, get on base, move a runner over.”
They’ll have to do it with a lot of new faces. There’s the possibility of five or even six newcomers in the lineup.
With it comes some obvious trepidation with so many new faces. But the Gamecocks are able to fall back on experienced players like Eyster, Sightler, Braylen Wimmer and Burgess.
“We have some good returning players that will form at least half of our lineup that will only continue to get better. They were pretty good last year. I think the new guys will give us a nice spark and a nice balance to our lineup,” Kingston said.
“I think there’s a lot of reasons for optimism as we move forward that we have some pieces in place to do some good things.”
South Carolina starts its season Feb. 18 at home against UNC Greensboro with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m.
The team scrimmages two more times before Opening Day: Friday at 2:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.
