South Carolina baseball: Mark Kingston discusses pitching staff, updates injuries

Julian Bosnic took the first positive steps towards a return this week, good news for both him and South Carolina.

South Carolina’s projected Saturday starter began throwing recently for the first time in about a month, marking the first movement toward pitching again this season.

“I can tell you Julian has begun growing within the last week. so far, knock on wood, the results have been good,” Kingston said. “We don’t know the timetable yet. But this is a very positive step in the right direction for him and for us.”

The Gamecocks (7-5) have struggled on the mound in Bosnic’s absence after the left-hander was shut down two weeks into the preseason.

Bosnic hasn’t pitched all year after entering the preseason as a surefire weekend arm. He was coming a year where he had a 2.84 ERA in 22 appearances with a 0.928 WHIP. He struck out 78 while getting his fastball up into the upper-90s.

It’s been a tough go of it for the Gamecocks’ pitching staff. They have a team ERA of 5.05 through the first 12 games of the year.

South Carolina pitchers are allowing teams to slash .262/.354/.376 with 51 walks and 18 wild pitches so far this year.

Injuries play a role, but the Gamecocks aren’t getting enough from the arms they’ve been using so far.

Starters this season have a 4.69 ERA and 1.326 WHIP. Led by Will Sanders, they’re striking out nearly 10 batters per nine innings to just 2.74 walks.

The bullpen, made up currently of largely newcomers or freshmen, has a 5.31 ERA and 1.655 WHIP. Relievers are striking out 10.6 per nine innings but walking 5.46 and allowing 9.4 hits per nine.

Of the 21 inherited runners this season, nine have scored (42.9 percent).

“You have to look at the big picture and small picture. As much as we say it all the time, it’s true. We’ve got to focus on process over outcome right now. The outcome at some point will be what we want. But until we get to that point, we just have to focus on doing the right things on a daily basis,” Kingston said.

“We have to have the right process to get us where we’re trying to go. So yeah, we’ve got young guys doing things and maybe we’re asking them to do too much but just the situation we’re in. So they’ll grow from it. They’ll get better from it.”

It’s tough for a Gamecock team that expected to have two frontline guys in Will Sanders and Julian Bosnic healthy and ready to go for the start of the season. But that hasn’t been the case.

Sanders is off to a fantastic start with a 2.37 ERA in three starts with 22 strikeouts, 14 of which came against Clemson. But with Bosnic out things have gotten tough.

Pair that with Jack Mahoney, Jackson Phipps, Sam Simpson and Jackson Phipps all down with Tommy John and a pitching staff with some quality arms coming off of last season is now insanely thin.

Having Josiah Sightler and Brett Thomas banged up as well doesn’t help the pitching staff, either. Kingston updated their statuses Thursday along with Eli Jones, who’s coming off Tommy John surgery.

“Brett Thomas threw yesterday in a live setting, as well as Eli Jones, and both look very, very good. So that was encouraging for us,” Kingston said. “Josiah Sightler I wouldn’t anticipate seeing him pitch anytime soon, but he will continue to be in our lineup offensively.”

It doesn’t get much easier for a depleted pitching staff with No. 1 Texas coming to town this weekend.

Offensively the Longhorns aren’t a prolific offense, slashing .285/.390/.451 to start the year, but they’ve hit 12 home runs with 31 doubles to start the year.

South Carolina will stick with the same plan as last week against Clemson. Will Sanders will start Friday and it will be TBA for the rest of the weekend.

“We scout opponents on video and watch a ton of video going into a series. But then when you get to watch them in person, you learn more about them. So you get a better feel for who might be good matchups on your staff. The way we’re going game to game right now we have to see who are we using to potentially win a game,” Kingston said. “So if you have certain guys that you know help you win a game, maybe that makes them more important in that game than trying to save them for a game two or game three. So all those things are being considered.”