Gamecock Digest

Everything Mark Kingston Said After SEC Tournament Semifinal Loss To LSU Tigers

Andrew Lyon

South Carolina head baseball coach Mark Kingston during an NCAA baseball game at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Tennessee won 4-1 against South Carolina.
South Carolina head baseball coach Mark Kingston during an NCAA baseball game at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Tennessee won 4-1 against South Carolina. / Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA

Talk about how [the overall tournament run] was for you and your team and going forward how it's going to help you.

"Yeah, we loved it. I mean, again, it's the greatest conference in America. It's the greatest players in America. It's the greatest coaches in America. I'll say it's the greatest umpires in America. It's the best of everything. It's the best. Like this stadium and what this town does for this week is incredible. I haven't had anything that reminds me of the Omaha experiences that I've had anything more than what is put on this week. It's everything that everybody that's in baseball wants to be a part of, and it's tremendous. And it was tremendous for me to watch our team. It's hard to think that you can have significant growth on a team this late in the season, but we did. We did because there were so many different challenging situations that our kids will be able to learn from. We were able to put so many young guys in situations through thick and thin, through good and bad. They're going to be better because of it, and it's the biggest stage they'll play on until they get to the big leagues. This is a very similar field in Omaha, especially when you're the team playing LSU like that. That was hostile territory out there. And our kids, our kids will learn from it. And our kids aren't perfect. Nobody's team is perfect. These are 18 to 22-23 year olds. They're going to make mistakes. It's our job to help get them through it, learn the lesson and be better because of it. So it's a tremendous week, hard to think that it can get better until you get to Omaha."

Errors seem to really be a lingering issue this entire week. And obviously today, kind of a two-part question, what do you do this late in the season to work through that? And is that something you just kind of played through at this point?

You know, we fielded 97.9% in 30 conference games this year. It was not a problem all year. Why it was a problem this week on this field? I don't know. We got to dig into it, got to talk to our players, communicate a little bit, ask them as we get to a regional, 'Is there anything we can do to help get you more ready?' I don't think there is because, you know, our guys prepare very well. Our guys are are good. We feel a 97.9% [fielding percentage], that's pretty damn good all year and for whatever reason, that type of defense didn't show up this week and we'll do everything we can to get it better."

When did you guys first notice that something might have been awry with the way Griffin threw the ball to home play it?

"You know, it was a crazy play, obviously. And I do want to say on the record, that was a very difficult situation for Derek Malika and that crew. And I think they did everything they could to try to get the call right. I think they did get the call right. And look, that's that's not a comfortable situation for umpires to be in. Nobody wants that. I know they don't want to be at the center of attention, but it was a crazy play. There was a very similar play recently that was, you know, kind of almost, not the identical play, [but] very, very similar. I think we drew on watching that on television and having seen it already and we just thought, 'Hey, let's bring this up. Let's see what happens and see if we can get the interpretation in our favor.'"

Coach, I want to ask you about the depth of this league. You kind of mentioned it earlier, but we've got five teams that are probably going to be national hosts.

"Well, depth, I mean, our depth has depth. Let me put it that way. You're watching pitchers today that have thrown very few innings and you'll probably see the same thing tomorrow. You're watching pitchers that have thrown very few innings all year for these SEC teams that are 96-97 miles an hour. You're like, 'Wow, how is this guy not pitching?' It's just because of the depth in this league. It's incredible. It really is and it's not going anywhere. It's only going to get better and better. So all the clubs that invest and really do everything they can to try to, you know, try to make sure their programs are in in a great place for growth. Those are going to be the teams that continue to develop and keep up pace. I mean, that's what this thing's all about. So it's an incredible league. It really is, like I said, players, coaches, umpires, fans. I mean, it's the best of the best."

Do you have one or maybe two takeaways or some of the overall games you played here before you get a week off for the NCAA tournament?

"Couldn't be prouder of my guys. Couldn't be prouder of how they handle -- I struggle to use the word adversity. You don't get adversity on a baseball field unless you get injured. Adversity is health problems. Adversity is those types of things we had failure to deal with this week, but every team has. And I'm just so proud of our guys that they are trying to make sure that they learn from the failures, that they handle them properly and they're better because of them. But my takeaway is that I'm glad the country got to see what we're all about, what we're capable of, the good and the bad. You know, we're not a perfect team. We have some warts that we need to try to try to cover up at times, but we know how to win and we can beat anybody. I mean, we've we've shown that we can beat anybody. So back to the the question about the league too, I'll just go ahead and say in my opinion, every team in our league that gets to the regionals will have a chance to go to Omaha. I don't think there's any question about that. So it's going to be a matter of who gets good draws, who's in a in a spot where they're playing hot against teams that maybe are not quite as hot, but every team in our league that gets to a regional will have a chance to go to Omaha."

Was Jackson stealing on his own?

"I'm not going to give you the secrets of that play because we might want to pull it out in the future. So I'm just going to leave it at that, sorry."

[Any update on Gavin] Casas?

"No, no positive news on Casas yet... We're just going to have to continue to see what the doctors and him come up with in our athletic trainer, Corey Barton, who does a good job. Just going to have to see if they can come up with anything that might allow him to play two more back left."

From a pitching standpoint, you what what did you learn about playing so many games in such a short period of time about your pitching staff and how to handle them with a with a regional format coming up?

"I mean, I hope we don't play five straight games next week, but we had a lot of kids step up. Sam Simpson pitched for the first time in a long time today and I thought he he handled himself well. Eli [Jones] got us out of a big jam. Matthew Becker had a couple of decent outings this weekend. You know, Garrett [Gainey] gave up that, that home run at there at the end, but he's, he's one of our guys and and that will not change that. Roman Kimball really represented himself well today and had poise and gave us a chance to win even at the box score. You know, it's it's hard to imagine he gave up four runs. That's probably a topic for for an official scorer and myself to talk about. But I thought Roman did a really nice job today and stepped up in a way that that was great for him and great for us as we move into the future."

With the regionals coming up next week and it like you said, with playing potentially five games next week, is there anything from this week that you feel like you would, if you could go back and change it? Would you or would you kind of just go with the same thing that you did with this?

"No. Look, you have to make decisions in the moment. You have to live with the results and then you move on to the next one. So whether it's who you're playing, who's coming in to pitch, do you bunt? Do you hit and run? Where do you shade your guys? Like, you have to make decisions in the moment that are based on information you have and then you live with the results. Baseball. Augie Garino said it a long time ago and it's no truer words have ever been spoken: "This game was designed to break your heart," and it broke our heart today again. And also, if you survive it, if you thrive in it, it will make you such a better person moving forward. So look, it broke our heart a little bit this week, but we also played a lot of great baseball. I mean, we're one of the last four teams standing here. Our kids have nothing to hang their heads about."

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Andrew Lyon
ANDREW LYON

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