How Mark Kingston is preparing for a 'significantly different' USC roster in 2019

On June 11, the day South Carolina’s season ended a game short of the College World Series, Mark Kingston rolled out a lineup that featured Danny Blair, Carlos Cortes, Madison Stokes, Jonah Bride, Justin Row, LT Tolbert, Hunter Taylor and Matt Williams.

This upcoming fall, when Kingston begins his second season as USC’s coach, the above players — all eight of them — will no longer be at his disposal. (Kingston confirmed on Wednesday that Tolbert, a 13th-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks, will sign before the July 6 deadline.)

Welcome back, Coach.

"Next year's roster will be significantly different than this last year," Kingston said during a news conference at Founders Park. "When you take over a program, you always have short-term and long-term vision. The short-term vision for this year was to maximize the club that we had, but at the same time, we also tried to take a longer-term (view) of what 2019 will look like, what 2020 will look like, what 2021 will be as we get there.

"You always try to combine the short-term and the long-term. I think we, once again, maximized the short-term and what this team was capable of. And along the way, we tried to pick up some pieces that will make next year and into the future better as well."

Most of the departures were expected long before Kingston led the Gamecocks to the Super Regional round of the NCAA tournament. USC entered 2018 with five seniors, 11 juniors and a draft-eligible sophomore in Cortes. Throw in the recent news of Blair, Kyle Jacobsen and Elijah Bowers transferring from the program and USC won't look the same next season.

Kingston has prepared for such turnover through recruiting. Junior college signees Luke Berryhill (catcher), George Callil (infielder), Nick Neville (infielder), Andrew Eyster (outfielder), Cole Ganopulos (pitcher), as well as incoming freshmen Wes Clarke (catcher), Joel Brewer (outfielder), Brady Allen (outfielder) and Josiah Sightler (utility), are expected to contribute.

(Swansea's Sightler, a 12th-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds, still hasn't decided on his future.)

"You're going to see some of the same stuff with our team as we start to evolve," Kingston said. "We want athletic players, we want speed, we want power, we want pitchers that have good stuff but also have good command.

"That's what we'll continue to try and fill this program with."

During USC's rise from mid-April slump to the the brink of the CWS in early June, Kingston praised the leadership of Stokes, Bride and company. Who steps up now?

Top returners include rising seniors Jacob Olson, T.J. Hopkins and Chris Cullen.

"When you look at every team, you always start with the veterans coming back who will be able to help carry that baton forward to show and be examples for the new group," Kingston said. "I think that's a pretty good group that you named (Olson, Hopkins and Cullen), and we'll start with that."

That trio went undrafted in June.

Olson was second on the team in home runs as a junior (12), but hit only .234. Kingston said Olson, partnering with rising sophomore Noah Campbell, will be evaluated as both infielders and outfielders in 2019.

"It'll be an open competition," Kingston said. "I think both of them have the ability to play in the infield and be very good outfielders as well. That gives us some flexibility. Now it's just a matter of how those pieces best fit together."

Hopkins hit .345 last season, but was missed down the stretch with a reported broken back.

"I think his game had evolved to the point where he was becoming a good baseball player," Kingston said. "Now we just need to make sure that he's spending a ton of time with the athletic trainers and with the strength trainers to give him the best chance for health moving forward."

Cullen, a corner infielder and catcher, made 32 starts last season. He hit .190 with three home runs.

"A lot of where Chris will play — because he is flexible position-wise — will have a lot to do with the pieces around him," Kingston said. "Who's playing first? Who's playing third? How are the catchers that we brought in?

"The great thing about (Cullen) is he's able and he's willing to play any of those three spots. So you could see him at third, first or behind the plate.

"Chris didn't have the (junior) year that he wanted, but our message to him is that he can still have a great senior year."

This story was originally published June 27, 2018 at 5:31 PM.