Seven seasons at the helm, and one final bout with inconsistency was the hammer blow.
South Carolina baseball announced a change in leadership on Monday, firing head coach Mark Kingston after his seventh season in charge.
South Carolina finished 37-25 in the 2024 season and lost to North Carolina State twice in the regional, giving Kingston a final overall record of 217-155 (83-96 SEC) leading the program.
The final nail in the coffin came after the Gamecocks failed to advance out of the Raleigh Regional, dropping their final game at Dail Park to the James Madison Dukes on Sunday and ended up eliminated in shutout fashion. He finished his tenure with four NCAA Tournament appearances and two Super Regional trips, never cracking the Omaha code.
Kingston took over from Chad Holbrook before the 2018 season, and found some early success. He led South Carolina to the NCAA Tournament in his first season in charge, even winning a regional and coming within a game of advancing to the College World Series before coming up short in a Super Regional at Arkansas.
But after a promising start, he only made it back to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament once. Things backslid heavily in 2019, as South Carolina limped to a 28-28 season overall and finished 8-22 in SEC play, still the program’s worst mark since it joined the league in 1992.
The 2020 season was canceled before conference play due to COVID-19, and South Carolina did find a way to rebound in 2021 to make a regional and host it despite being a No. 2 seed due to new rules with the pandemic. But playing at home was not enough, as South Carolina suffered elimination at Founders Park thanks to a pair of one-run defeats to Old Dominion and Virginia.
As was a trademark of the Kingston era, though, turbulence hit the program. South Carolina followed up a postseason appearance by failing to make it back for the second time, actually falling under .500 overall in the 2022 season for the first time since 1996 with a 27-28 mark. Even after bouncing back in 2023 to reach another Super Regional, that Jekyll and Hyde nature of his tenure bit back in 2024.
Entering a season with Omaha expectations and enough returning talent to feasibly push for it, South Carolina never captured the magic. The Gamecocks lost both games to Clemson and four of their first six SEC series to fall into a hole, only to win the next two and create a little life going into the final two weekends of the season.
Up and down as always, but with one more brutal downslide to end this rollercoaster for good.
South Carolina lost six games in a row to close the regular season against Georgia and Tennessee, dropping right out of position to host a regional. It did pick up a little bit of steam with a 3-2 showing in the SEC Tournament, but nowhere near enough to salvage the remains of a disappointing season or set up a run when it counted most.
Now comes the question of a hire, arguably the most crucial in program history. It has been a dozen years since the last Omaha appearance, an unthinkable drought in the wake of Ray Tanner’s dynasty and with all the resources South Carolina still has to offer.
It is up to Tanner to find the right candidate to pull the once proud program back before it drifts further into the wilderness.
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