South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Mark Kingston impressed with newcomers as fall baseball starts

South Carolina went through almost every way possible to add players to the program, from high school signees to junior college transfers and portal additions.

Mark Kingston is hoping all three help get the Gamecocks to where they want to be as fall scrimmages start this weekend.

“Every year’s different; every year provides new opportunities for guys to make names for themselves,” Kingston said. “If you’re recruiting in the right way, picking the right guys, the names might change but what you want is a program where every year there’s a consistent standard for what you think you’re going to be able to do. You’re bringing in the right players, developing them the right way and meeting that standard. I expect that to be the case.”

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The Gamecocks are coming off a year where they finished with 34 wins, top 20 in the RPI but were eliminated in the regional round of the NCAA Tournament.

This offseason they lost a lot of pieces and are only set to return 41.4 percent of last year’s innings and 42.2 percent of at-bats with almost 20 newcomers on the fall roster, whether it be high school players, junior college transfers or players who’ve played college baseball before.

The Gamecocks’ 2021 high school recruiting class is ranked in the top 10 by PerfectGame with eight top 500 prospects headlined by shortstop Michael Braswell (No. 63) and outfielder Thad Ector (74).

The other top 500 prospects—Carson Hornung (102), Vytas Valincius (173), Cole Messina (266), Elijah Lambros (299), Samuel Simpson (346) and Aidan Hunter (403)—all have chances to earn playing time early.

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“We have some high school guys who will play a big role for us this year and have some very good transfers here we brought in front the transfer portal from some very good universities who so far have looked very good on our field so far this fall,” Kingston said.

Both junior college transfers—James Hicks and Michael Esposito—have a chance to impact the rotation and the Gamecocks’ transfer portal class also could make an immediate impact.

Virginia Tech transfer Kevin Madden, Vanderbilt outfielder Matt Hogan and Missouri utility player Brandt Belk could earn starting positions in the field while App State pitcher Noah Hall will compete for starter innings.

“We brought in some guys who are going to have a major impact. I really do. On the offensive side, they’re really going to help us. Defensively we added some guys who are going to be very encouraging when people see them. Then on the pitching side, there are names on the roster our fans will get to know pretty quickly once the season starts,” Kingston said. “There’s going to be some new names Gamecock fans are going to be very happy with.”

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The Gamecocks begin their fall scrimmages Friday afternoon at 3:30, the first chance South Carolina’s coaching staff will get to evaluate their new roster in game-type situations.

“Really, none of it matters until you start the season in the spring and the lights turn on and they open the gates and there’s another team in the other dugout trying to beat you. You don’t know what you have until you get to that point,” Kingston said.

“We’re always trying to gain information to know what we have and how to get guys better and help them.”