Head coach Mark Kingston and the South Carolina Gamecocks opened up the SEC Tournament on Tuesday with a win over the Alabama Crimson Tide. It was a much-needed win for the Gamecocks, as they came into postseason play struggling to succeed against SEC teams.
Following that win, Kingston delivered a message on what South Carolina’s mentality as it enters the postseason, starting with the SEC Tournament.
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“Part of my speech to the team this morning was I keep getting asked that question, ‘How are they going to recover from a tough couple of weeks?’ And with all due respect, I told our team people are asking us those questions don’t really know what you guys are made of,” Mark Kingston said. “Don’t know going on inside this building, don’t know the investment you have all made to support each other for the last 10 months starting on the first day of class.”
The recent struggles that Mark Kingston and South Carolina have endured have been very real. The Gamecocks finished the season on a six-game losing streak, getting swept by Georgia and Tennessee respectively.
“And so we’re very intentional about trying to build a group of guys that know there are going to be ups and downs in this league. Very few teams will ever go through this league unscathed, you’re going to have ups and downs. Sometimes if the schedule falls a certain way, they’re going to be early. Sometimes the schedule falls a certain way, they’re going to be late, but they’re coming,” Kingston said.
“And so you have to build the right foundation that they’ll be able to handle that when they do come. Baseball is a game that demands consistency and a certain calm and a stable mindset. And so we always emphasize that to our guys, that’s where we have to be, and I think that allows you to deal with the downs until the wave comes back to you and you start to experience some of the ups.”
In the end, it was a 10-5 win for South Carolina over Alabama. Within that game, it was perhaps the third inning that ended up being decisive, with Gavin Casas, Ethan Petry, and Dalton Reeves all hitting home runs in a six-run frame.
Mark Kingston and South Carolina are marching forward in the SEC Tournament on Wednesday. There, the Gamecocks are set to play the Arkansas Razorbacks. When the two teams met for a three-game series back in April, it was the Razorbacks that walked away with two out of three wins.
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