Gamecocks likely losing starter for 2019 season

It's looking more and more likely that South Carolina will be without one of its top returning pitchers next season.

Logan Chapman has a tear in his UCL, something that could keep him out the entirety of his sophomore season.

“He’s continuing to be evaluated," Mark Kingston said. "It’s looking like it might not go our way this year for Logan.”

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One of the most common ways to repair a torn UCL is through Tommy John surgery, a fairly common and routine procedure a lot of pitchers have over their careers.

It's not ultimately set in stone, although that's looking more and more like the case, that Chapman would have the procedure but if it does it will sideline him for the entire 2019 season.

He would then redshirt and not count toward the 35-man roster.

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Chapman pitched his way into the starting rotation as a freshman last season, finishing with a 3-3 record in 16 appearances (14 starts) and a 5.85 ERA.

He was the only returning member of the pitching staff with double-digit starts, but Kingston said he's optimistic about the pitching depth if Chapman were to go down.

“We have a lot of guys to look at," he said. "I think the depth of this staff is a little bigger than last year at this point so we’ll have a lot of guys fighting to pick him up.”

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In other injury news, Jacob Olson missed Tuesday's scrimmage with a pulled oblique but he should be fine. He injured it before the scrimmage and was in the dugout watching during the eight-inning game.

Infielder Nick Neville, who pulled an oblique last week and freshman catcher Wes Clarke (knee) both didn't scrimmage Tuesday and are listed as day-to-day.

Neville took infield warmups with the team but didn't hit Tuesday as a way to make sure he and the rest of the players stay as healthy as they can for the season.

“In the fall, you’re not going to push guys and ask them to do things and make things worse in the fall," Kingston said. "So they’ll be fine; they’re all day to day.”

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