Win or lose, Mark Kingston typically addresses his team on the field postgame and players meet and talk with their families before slowly trickling into the locker room.
Friday there was none of that. No on-field meeting, no mingling with families postgame.
Instead, after another series-opening loss this time a 9-0 defeat to Mississippi State, Mark Kingston took his team immediately to the locker room to “hash some things out.”
“I’ll keep that mostly between then and myself. But I reminded them of who they can be, bottom line,” Kingston said. “I reminded them of who they can be and who they are when the right team shows up."
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And whatever was said needed to be as the Gamecocks’ offensive struggles continued and hopes of hosting a regional get smaller as they suffer their largest margin of defeat so far this season.
After changing up the starting rotation to inject some new energy into series openers, the Gamecocks got much of the same formula from their previous five weeks.
Brannon Jordan (4-4, 3.52 ERA) pitched well enough to keep the Gamecocks in the game in his first Friday-night start while South Carolina offensively couldn’t muster much of anything against Mississippi State’s ace.
The Gamecocks (27-16, 11-11 SEC) put up three hits—all singles—and just one against Bulldog starter Christian MacLeod, who sliced through the South Carolina order with six strikeouts in seven shutout innings.
It’s the sixth-straight series opener South Carolina’s lost with the Gamecocks 1-7 in game ones in league play while hitting .160/.255/.235 and averaging 2.4 runs.
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“There are no magic wands. You just have to work hard, just have to watch video and have to work hard and make adjustments and prepare for the pitchers you’re facing,” Kingston said. “You have to go out and do it. At the end of the day you just have to do it. If you get a fastball you can’t miss it. If it’s a ball in the dirt you can’t be swinging at it. It’s that simple.”
Like most of the other game ones, South Carolina fell behind early with Jordan giving up two runs in the first, allowing three singles to start the game and giving up a run-plating double play.
He’d settle in nicely afterwards, allowing just one more run the rest the way, turning in a quality start: eight hits, three runs—all earned—with two walks and four strikeouts in six innings.
“I thought he was good. We got to do a better job early in the game,” Kingston said. “He gave us a chance to win. I was very impressed with how he overcame a really tough first inning. Again he gave us a chance to win and that’s what we ask from our starters.”
State blew the doors open in the seventh inning off freshman reliever Mag Cotto, who was coming off two perfect innings earlier in the week, with Mississippi State getting four of those runs on doubles, one coming with the bases loaded, and another on a wild pitch.
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“The fastball was just as good in my opinion but he had a tough time controlling the off-speed pitch,” Kingston said. “When you play a team like Mississippi State when all you can throw is a fastball for a strike you’re going to get hammered.”
Friday’s loss puts the Gamecocks in a precarious position needing to win the next two games to take the series and keep the hopes of hosting a regional alive.
Kingston hopes whatever he told the team in the locker room works and works quickly with game two Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m.
“It’s about honesty, making sure their heads are right. All you can do when adversity hits you have to handle it the right way,” he said. “We’ll continue to do that and continue to fight but you have to make sure the right team shows up every day ready to compete.”
