Why Mark Kingston is sticking with the current makeup of his struggling rotation
The big blemish on South Carolina's road series win over Vanderbilt last weekend was fairly obvious — all three Gamecock starters were less than effective.
Freshman Logan Chapman, who was unexpectedly elevated to series-opening status about a month ago, didn't make it past the third inning Friday, giving up seven runs. Junior Adam Hill went 4 1/3 innings, giving up seven runs as well. And sophomore Cody Morris closed the weekend with a start that lasted just two innings, allowing four runs in the process.
For those keeping track, that's nine innings between three pitchers, 18 runs — in other words, not all that great. And it hasn't been just the Vanderbilt series: South Carolina has the fourth-worst team ERA in the SEC, and every conference team has at least one starter with a better ERA than USC's leader, Morris.
Hill in particular has battled inconsistency all season long despite entering the year as the team's unquestioned ace and likely high-round MLB draft pick.
"I think he was primed to go into this season, to have a great junior season, and he missed most of the fall just making sure he would be fresh and ready for the spring, and I don't know if that has anything to do with it," Kingston said. "Maybe he's a guy that needs to pitch more to stay sharp, but yeah, we all expected, including Adam, for him to have a dominant year, and at times, he's been dominant, it just hasn't been every start like you hope."
But this weekend, when USC hosts Ole Miss hoping to pick up some valuable wins in its NCAA tournament pursuit, the same three pitchers will trot out to the mound in the same order, coach Mark Kingston said Thursday, even as he also said they need to be much better.
"They just need to pitch better, and that will start with their command, that will start with their control, getting ahead of hitters, staying in the strike zone much better than they have," Kingston said. "They just can't fall behind. They have good stuff, but they don't have such good stuff that (when) they fall behind and get into hitters' counts, that teams can't hit their fastballs. That's the bottom line."
Some fans have questioned whether Chapman, Hill and Morris' struggles at Vanderbilt were tied to the mound at Hawkins Stadium, which is turf, one of the only such mounds South Carolina will play on this season. Kingston, however, wasn't buying that explanation.
"Maybe, but I didn't even explore that after the fact because I want our guys to have a no excuse mentality. Vanderbilt's pitchers and our bullpen were just fine on that mound. They've had great success as a program at Vanderbilt throwing strikes, having great pitching staffs with that mound (and) our bullpen was dominant on that mound. So to me, that would be looking for excuses, and we're just not going to do that," he said.
The Gamecock bullpen's success also means some pitchers who began the season as potential replacement starters are now settled into defined roles — junior Eddy Demurias has become an innings-eater out of the pen when the starter struggles, sophomore Sawyer Bridges is an effective closer and junior Ridge Chapman has flashed elite velocity while coming out an inning or two at a time.
"We still have some guys that need to pitch better out of the bullpen, but we're getting closer to having some defined roles," Kingston said. As a result, the starters for South Carolina seemed to be fairly settled — now they just have to pitch to the level Kingston wants.
NEXT
Who: South Carolina (26-18,11-10 SEC) vs. Ole Miss (35-11, 12-9 SEC)
When: 7 p.m., Friday, May 4
Where: Founders Park
Watch: Streaming online on SEC Network Plus via WatchESPN
Listen: 107.5 FM
Probable pitchers: South Carolina — Fr. RHP Logan Chapman (3-0, 4.53 ERA); Ole Miss — So. LHP Ryan Rolison (6-3, 3.26 ERA)
This story was originally published May 3, 2018 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Why Mark Kingston is sticking with the current makeup of his struggling rotation."