Gamecock Pitching Coach Leaves For Mississippi State; Replacement Quickly Emerges

The pitching coach for South Carolina's baseball team, Justin Parker, is reportedly leaving for Mississippi State, with a replacement already emerging.

When a team like South Carolina has a good season marked by a postseason appearance and records and bad streaks being broken, it's not a question of if teams will target assistant coaches on the staff but which ones will. For the Gamecocks, pitching coach Justin Parker, who's been in Columbia the past two seasons, was quickly targeted by Mississippi State's head baseball coach Chris Lemonis, and according to an early Monday morning report by 247sports' Mississippi State beat writer David H. Murray, has accepted the position.

Now, South Carolina isn't just replacing their top four starting pitchers from the 2023 baseball season, but now they have to replace the coach that partly helped to develop these arms and put them in a position to succeed week in and week-out in the SEC. However, it seems like South Carolina fans won't have to wait too long before learning who Parker's replacement could be, as D1Baseball.com managing editor, Kendall Rogers, has already hinted that Liberty pitching coach Matt Williams is coming to Columbia to fill in the vacant role.

With Justin Parker going to Mississippi State and @GamecockBasebll bringing in Matt Williams from Liberty, it's one of those instances where both sides are pretty happy.

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) June 19, 2023

Williams will still have plenty of talent to work with on the Gamecocks' roster, as bearing any transfer portal movement, notable pitchers like Eli Jones, Cade Austin, Roman Kimball, Austin Williamson, and Matthew Becker are all returning for the 2024 season. The staff has only been boosted so far this offseason with transfer additions like Virginia Tech's Tyler Dean, College of Charleston's Ty Good, and Liberty's Garrett Gainey, whom Williams coached in Lynchburg this past Spring.

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