Kingston addresses offensive struggles after A&M series

Mark Kingston made his weekly appearance on 107.5 FM Monday, giving the Gamecocks’ head coach a chance to address some of South Carolina’s positives and pitfalls coming off a series loss to Texas A&M.

While he’s been pleased with his team’s overall defense, and pitching at some points this weekend, he still says the Gamecocks’ offense is still a work in progress.

“Offensively, it’s been a struggle,” he told 107.5 The Game on his weekly spot. “Some guys have gotten really hot, some guys have gotten really cold; some guys have just been a little overwhelmed by the competition at this point. We are a work in progress. It’s no secret. The key is to understand it and try to improve in every area you possible can every day you show up.”

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The Gamecocks are averaging 5.6 runs over 40 games while .236/.337/.439 as a team. Through six SEC weekends they’re hitting .192/.289/.336 and averaging 3.4 runs a game.

Right now they’re leading the league in home runs (60) and are currently sixth in slugging percentage. They’re also 13th in runs scored on the year and are last in batting average, at-bats, plate appearances, and hits this year.

Because of that, Kingston’s started to tweak his team’s offensive identity from the power-happy approach at the beginning of the season to merging that with a more small-ball identity featuring more bunts and aggressiveness on the bases.

Since making the switch about halfway through SEC play, the results have been mostly positive if the Gamecocks get men on base.

“I think the days we’ve had enough runners on base to do that it’s helped us. Against North Carolina we did some hitting and running and bunting. You combine that with the power and we had a really good game and beat an outstanding North Carolina team,” Kingston said. “It has helped us at times, but you have to have enough guys on base to make that happen. Once they’re on base, for the stolen bases, it has to be the right guys. It has to be a guy like TJ Hopkins getting on base to take advantage of that. We have bunted more than we have in the past out of necessity. At times it’s helped us score some runs. It all has to marry together; you have to be pitching at a high level if we’re playing for one-run innings the pitching is going to be good enough to hold them off and vice versa.”

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Kingston did say he’s been mostly pleased with his team young pitching at points this year but understands there will be some growing pains with his team’s host of freshmen or sophomore pitchers.

Four of the five pitchers that have logged the most innings this season are first-year players with three—Cam Tringali, Brett Kerry and Wesley Sweatt—freshmen. In SEC play, only four pitchers have thrown more than 20 innings, and three of those freshmen as well.

It’s been an up-and-down process learning a pitching staff full of young faces, and Kingston knows this year’s struggles, both pitching and in the lineup, will hopefully pay dividends in the future.

“If you want a cheap meal, use the microwave, if you want a good meal you’re going to have to cook it a lot slower to get something you really like. Unfortunately we can’t put these players in microwaves,” Kingston said. “A freshman pitcher like Dylan Harley, it takes them some time. A guy like Brett Kerry, that’s a special one. Sometimes you get a special one ready to go from day one, and he’s been great from opening day. But the majority of freshmen—pitchers and hitters—it just takes time to go through and learn what it takes."

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The Gamecocks (23-17, 5-13 SEC) find themselves in a unique place with 12 conference games left to go, just a game up on Alabama and Kentucky for the final spot in the SEC Tournament field.

There will be chances for the Gamecocks to add to that win total with a series this weekend at Missouri (7-10-1) and Kentucky (4-14) coming to Founders Park May 10-12.

"You look at team’s records. You see who’s winning and losing,” Kingston said. “You do all that stuff, that’s part of the gig. You need to know where you stand, how you compare and what needs to be done. It doesn’t make you necessarily win any more games. You can’t you say, ‘well, we need to win five more’ and it means you’ll magically win those five games. You still have to do the things that require you to win. That needs to be the main focus.”