It might look a little different because of Coronavirus, but fall baseball is back in Columbia Thursday.

The Gamecocks will start its fall scrimmages Thursday in its first full team practices since their season was suspended in March.

It’s finally time to get back on the diamond and head coach Mark Kingston is ready to get things rolling.

“We’ll be getting after it. I'm anxious to see our returning players start to mix with the new players and start to formulate what we have here,” he said. “I'm excited to get back on the field with these guys. It's been a long, long time. The players and coaches are all just very anxious to get out there again."

Protocols

The baseball team is doing through a lot of the same protocols that every other sports are going through with testing, working out before Thursday in smaller groups and not getting full use of the locker room just yet. During the fall they’ll be using two dugouts to try and distance as much as possible.

Also see: Examining recruiting battles between the Gamecocks and Vols

Normally they’d be able to have in-person team meetings but not this year; those have been done either over Zoom or in smaller in-person groups.

“The time spent as a team has been very, very small so far. That’s the biggest thing we need to play catch up on once we start team practice,” Kingston said. “These guys, I think some of them are still trying to learn each other’s names because there’s been so much separation in small groups.”

Talent incoming!

The Gamecocks’ 2020 recruiting class is widely regarded as a top 10 class, with PerfectGame having it as high as No. 4 in the country.

They only lost one member of the class to the MLB Draft, JUCO lefty Luke Little, but welcome in 18 newcomers, including 12 top 500 prospects and four top 100 players.

“They want to be a big part of getting our program back to the top of the heap in college baseball,” Kingston said. “They’re also very driven personally in terms of they want to get to pro baseball someday. They want to play at the highest level. It’s seems to be a group so far you can motivate because they have big goals.”

It’s headlined by outfielder Brandon Fields, who’s considered the No. 31 overall player in the class.

“Fields will be in the mix to be a starting player,” Kingston said. “He has all the talent in the world to get it done, it’s just a matter of is he ready offensively or if he’s ready defensively or if he can run the bases at this level. He’s a guy we’re really excited about. Time will tell if he’s ready to contribute right away.”

Also see: Breaking down the key to the run game this season

It still remains to be seen if the freshmen or newcomers can make an impact, but Kingston thinks this group has a chance to help get the Gamecocks back to Omaha.

“That’s what I think our program should be about: guys that have big goals for South Carolina, guys who have big goals professionally,” he said. ”So far, it’s a small sample size, we’re seeing a group that has a lot of those characteristics.”

Pitching power

South Carolina’s pitching staff might be the deepest it’s been in years, and two weekend arms, Thomas Farr and Brannon Jordan, should factor into the weekend again this year, lead it.

The Gamecocks also return a lot of pitchers who impacted the game last year in Brett Kerry, Cam Tringali, Daniel Lloyd and others along with a host of incoming talent like CJ Weins, Jackson Phipps, Cade Austin, Mag Cotto and more.

“I’m very pleased with where our pitching is and the potential of that group is,” Kingston said. “You have to say at this point Farr and Jordan are the guys leading the charge but we have a lot of guys who are going to be right there with them fighting for big, big innings.”

Also see: Latest scoop on the baseball team

Evaluation is key

Usually coaches have a lot of data to evaluate players on at the end of the fall but not this year.

Because of Coronavirus, summer ball opportunities were limited and some players missed out on a chance to do that. Now, the Gamecocks will have to make up a little for lost time and try to get players as many innings or at-bats as possible.

“We’ll play more scrimmage games than we’ve ever played in a fall because I want to see what it all looks like together on the field. Batting practice is one thing, bullpens are one thing,” Kingston said.

“I want to see how these guys look with the pads on. I want to see which freshmen can play at this level. I want to see which players have taken the next step. Then I want to see how it all gets blended together and what our best look is as we get closer to the season and the spring."