Midway through SEC schedule, what's gone right — and wrong — for USC baseball
As South Carolina baseball prepares to host LSU this weekend, the Gamecocks are halfway through their 30-game conference schedule and sit at 20-17, 6-9 in the SEC, tied for second to last in the East division.
New coach Mark Kingston's first year on the job has been up and down, to put it mildly. From crushing defending national champ Florida to dropping home midweek contests against Furman and Presbyterian, USC has been all over the map in terms of results. Here's what Kingston and his squad have been doing well and what they've struggled with.
What's been good
High-quality wins: Despite hovering just above .500, South Carolina has impressive wins against several of the nation's top programs, including the 15-7 defeat of Florida mentioned above, a 3-2 road win against No. 3 Arkansas, a 15-1 blowout of No. 6 Kentucky and a walk-off victory against No. 17 Clemson.
In those wins, fans have seen flashes of a top-tier ballclub that's "good across the board," as Kingston put it, and can compete in the SEC.
"You have to be athletic, you have to have pitchers that throw nothing but strikes, you have to have speed, you have to have power, you have to play defense at a very high rate, you have to be very athletic on defense so you make the big play when it's there," Kingston said of what's necessary in SEC play. At its best, South Carolina has been that.
Veteran hitting: Led by junior LT Tolbert, the Gamecocks have four .300-plus hitters who have formed the core of their offense. Seniors Madison Stokes, Justin Row and Jonah Bride, all infielders, have combined with Tolbert to account for more than 60 percent of USC's hits.
What's been bad
Streaky offense: It's hard to overstate how inconsistent South Carolina's offense has been this season — the day before it defeated Kentucky 15-1, it lost 14-1. Against Arkansas, Carolina was scoreless for nearly 20 consecutive innings, including shutout performances back-to-back in a Saturday doubleheader.
"Our offense has been a little uneven, a lot of that has to do with who we face — sometimes you just face really good pitching, especially in this league, that can shut you down," Kingston said.
In-state woes: Inconsistency has led to embarrassing losses that have led Kingston to proclaim that his team's performance is "not good enough." That's especially evident against in-state competition — South Carolina is 5-6 against Palmetto State foes, and 2-3 in midweek games.
The Gamecocks have three more such games, against Furman, College of Charleston and USC Upstate. They need to win at least two of them to ensure they won't have their first sub-.500 season against in-state schools since 1971. The last .500 season was in 1996.
"Obviously, there's some negativity from not performing the way we want to perform, but I think coach Kingston does a great job of keeping us positive and just bringing the same composure, the same attitude each day, regardless of the result. We're going to continue to battle and try to finish the season strong," Stokes said.
Injuries: This one, USC can't control, but Carolina has had rotten luck with injuries this season, so much so that Kingston has said it's been as bad as he's ever had as a head coach. Position players Stokes, Row, freshman Noah Campbell and junior TJ Hopkins have missed time, and while most are starting to return to full health, Row's status remains uncertain for the LSU series.
What's next
"I wish our record was better," Kingston said. "As Bill Parcells said a long time ago, you are what your record says you are. So our focus is just continuing to get better. I'm never gonna be the kind of coach that'll feel like we're as good as we should be. We're always gonna think we should get better. It's a process."
That process won't be easy. In its five remaining SEC series, South Carolina faces opponents with a combined winning percentage of .695, including four ranked teams.
Barring some dramatic reversal, the NCAA tournament seems out of reach. A more realistic concern is the SEC tournament — two of 14 teams in the conference don't make it to Hoover, Alabama, and right now, USC is hovering just one game above those two last-place spots, albeit alongside three other teams.
The Gamecocks have not missed the postseason outright since 1996. A poor finish to the season could snap that run. The good news, Kingston says, is that the problem hasn't been his team's attitude or approach.
"Obviously, no one likes to lose games, but my job as the coach of this program is to make sure they're working hard, that they're staying positive and that they're continuing to try to get better, and I've seen that," Kingston said. " ... I don't think effort has been a problem, I don't think that focus has been a problem. At times, we've just been facing teams that are playing a little bit better baseball than us."
This story was originally published April 19, 2018 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Midway through SEC schedule, what's gone right — and wrong — for USC baseball."