Published Mar 17, 2021
Kingston: 'There’s going to be no panic' after getting swept
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Collyn Taylor  •  GamecockScoop
Beat Writer
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@collyntaylor

South Carolina had to wait an extra day, but the Gamecocks finally get a chance to get back on the field after their first three-game losing streak in almost two years.

The Gamecocks (11-3) are coming off being swept by Texas last weekend and host Davidson Wednesday, a day late after rain pushed the game back to Wednesday, looking to see if they can bounce back after the losses.

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"We met (Monday) as a staff for a few hours. What you do is evaluate everything, look into everything, talk about scenarios and what about these dominos and if we do this here what it does to the offense and what it does to the defense and do against a lefty pitcher. Do we need to get more athletic or do we need more power?” Mark Kingston said on 107.5 this week.

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“There are a million different scenarios over the course of a season you hope you’re getting closer to what is your best option. There are a million stories about teams looking different at the end of the season than they do at the beginning of the season. We will continue to evolve and look at anything we think could help our team.”

The Gamecocks were neck and neck with the Longhorns for the majority of the first two games before going down six runs early Sunday and coming back for a three-run lost.

While the results were certainly disappointing Kingston said he thinks the Gamecocks learned a lot from a three-game set on the road against a top-20 team.

“It’s very easy to take positives out. Obviously it’s very disappointing with the three losses. We’re disappointed with the results and scores but it’s very easy to take positives out because you know having the guts to go do it number one makes a major statement to your team that we’re not going to back down and take the easy way out. Obviously I wish we would have responded a little bit better and had more success but number one we made the statement to our team that we will challenge them, go on the road and play top 10 teams when presented the opportunity,” Kingston said.

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“That’s a major positive. Number two we learned a lot about guys this weekend. We learned which guys could compete at the highest levels. We learned which guys are comfortable at that level. We learned how to go on the road and what to do and what adjustments we need to make.”

The Gamecocks did put up 21 hits but had just six runs to show for it, hitting 9-for-52 (.173) with runners in scoring position this weekend.

South Carolina gets its first look Wednesday at some of the changes they’ve tried to implement heading into this weekend’s SEC opener.

“Are we looking at things to tweak? Of course we are. Let’s not forget we were coming off winning 16 games in a row. I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater right now. We had a tough weekend, they played better than we did and we’ll make adjustments,” Kingston said.

“The SEC is going to be like the American League East where you just need to compete, win more games than you lose and then the postseason is where you get the big payoff. There’s going to be no panic in this department, I can assure you of that.”

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South Carolina hosts Davidson at 7 p.m. Wednesday (SEC Network Plus) with Will Sanders (2-1, 2.79 ERA) scheduled to start.

This is the final tune up before SEC play starts this weekend with the Gamecocks traveling to No. 2/3 Vanderbilt for a three-game series.