Ray Tanner brings in first baseball job candidate

South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner is back from Omaha and getting to work on the USC baseball coaching search.

USF head coach Mark Kingston interviewed for the vacant head coaching job and toured Founders Park Thursday night, as first reported by The Big Spur. A source confirmed the meeting to The State.

Kingston has been the head coach at South Florida since 2015 and the Bulls have made the NCAA tournament two of the three years.

He has an overall record of 253-180-1 as a head coach and USF went 42-19 this past season.

Prior to his time at USF Kingston spent five seasons at Illinois State with one NCAA tournament appearance.

Kingston’s coaching career began in 1997. He spent time as an assistant at Purdue, Illinois State, Miami, Tulane and another stint at Illinois State before becoming the head coach of Illinois State in 2010.

Kingston played at North Carolina and was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1992. He played five seasons of pro baseball in the Brewers and Cubs organizations.

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Ray Tanner brings in first baseball job candidate."