What Ohio State is saying about South Carolina baseball

Ohio State baseball coach Greg Beals will have the challenge of leading his Big Ten-seventh place Buckeyes against a hot South Carolina team in the NCAA Tournament East Carolina Regional.

Here’s what he said about the Gamecocks team led by Mark Kingston:

Overall: Talented. They’re a talented group of guys. They’ve got arms with velocity. They’ve got some power in their bats. It’s going to be a game that comes down to execution. Who’s going to be able to execute in critical situations, get the hit when they need to get the hit. Make the pitch when they need to make the pitch.

On Adam Hill: Arm strength. I see the arm strength. I see good action on the slider. We’re going to need to make him pitch that slider in the zone and not chase the slider down and out the zone. So be ready to hit fastballs and make sure we’re elevating his slider.

On USC pitching coach Skylar Meade, who coached at Michigan State for three seasons: We know Skylar, been around him on the ballfield for several years. Great pitching coach and a good get for South Carolina. He’s a young star. … What makes him a great coach is he’s able to take the player, the pitcher and pitch to his strength.

On USC’s lineup: I don’t know that there’s any one guy, so to say. There’s depth and there’s strength in their lineup. That’s what makes them a good baseball team. They finish strong. … You don’t get to this point because of one guy. So there’s not a single thing in their lineup that sticks out for me. We’re going to have to pitch efficiently. A lineup like that has a tendency to wear on a starting pitcher.

This story was originally published May 31, 2018 at 3:19 PM with the headline "What Ohio State is saying about South Carolina baseball."