Following South Carolina’s 6-5 win over Kentucky, head coach Mark Kingston spoke to the media to break down the game. Here’s what he had to say.
Opening statement
“Well, coaches love when players kind of back up what they say in public, and I think I put it out there pretty consistent over the last few weeks about the resolve this team has, the heart this team has no matter what, and today was just more evidence of what they’re made of, and so very happy for them, very proud of them. Very happy for Dylan Eskew and Tyler Dean and Parker Marlatt and Matthew Becker. They just faced potentially the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and gave up two earned runs. Couldn’t be more happy for them, proud, and again, you don’t need any more proof of the resolve of this team.”
On Gavin Casas’ injury situation
“Let me answer that question before Ethan does because it’s not official that it’s a done deal. I know supposedly a hot mic caught that it was definitely something. The doctors, our official doctors still need to look at it. We could potentially have a Christian Walker situation, and all the Gamecock fans know what that means from early 20- — I don’t know if it was ’10 or ’11 when he went through that.”
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On Parker Marlatt’s outing and if he’s seen him throw 57 pitches before
“No, he’s never thrown 57 pitches. Rarely do you see young pitchers that are not going to be starters for you throw that many pitches in intersquads. But he’s a guy we know when he gets on a little roll and he’s got command of the fastball and he’s breaking off that curveball, he can get outs pretty quickly. It almost felt like we’re going to ride him a little bit like we did Veach day one. I think it’s day one. Losing track now, we’ve been here for so long. But it kind of had that same feel to it. And then we kind of got to the end, and it’s like, okay, it’s time for the next guy. But Parker has good stuff. As you can tell here, he’s got a very low heart rate, doesn’t seem to be flustered by much, and that’s not an easy situation for a freshman out there, and he made a lot of big pitches. We finally started playing defense there the last two thirds of the game, and obviously that, with the way we pitched, allowed us to keep them where they were.”
On what this win says about the team after losing a tough one last night
“I don’t think it says anything other than what we already know, that I’ve been preaching to everybody that is willing to listen, that wants to listen. This is a good baseball team, one of the best in the country. It’s played arguably the toughest schedule in the country. It has a lot of good kids that play the game right, that prepare right, that are tough, that have grit, and they’re just never going to show up to the ballpark without the desire to go 1-0 that day. Again, as Ethan mentioned, I’ve been talking to them all year about how battle tested they are and it will pay off when it really matters. That has begun. Doesn’t mean anything for next week, doesn’t mean anything for tomorrow, but this team’s heart cannot be questioned.”
On how frustrating the three errors were today
“No. I mean, look, do we want to make errors? No, we don’t. We understand it’s part of the game sometimes. We fielded I believe it was 979 in the league this year, so it has not been a problem for us. Last couple days it has been, but today we found a way to overcome it. Had we played good defense last night, yeah, we win that game, but some days you really hit, some days you really pitch, some days you really play defense. That’s why the game is so beautiful, because you never know where you’re going to be really good, what you’re going to struggle with on a given day. That’s why everybody loves to watch it. But frustration? A little frustrating, yeah, because we know how good we can be, and we usually are.”
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On Dalton Reeves catching behind the plate today and how he did
“Yeah, anytime you get to start a guy that’s 37 years old behind the plate (laughter), it’s really good for the demeanor of your team. I joke again. Dalton was outstanding. He threw out his first base runner of the year today, and that ball came out of his hand hot, and against one of the best stolen base teams in the country. I thought that was a big lift for us when he did that. I thought he caught extremely well. He was a good leader back there. Yeah, he was a calming presence. I’ll have a decision to make tomorrow whether he catches or Messina catches because again, I don’t want to overextend Messina as much effort and as much as he’s put into this weekend. I don’t want him to go into next weekend tired. Going to have to talk to Messina and see how he feels about it. I feel great with either one catching.”
On if he has an emergency third baseman in mind if Talmadge LeCroy goes down
“Yeah, Lee Ellis. Lee Ellis is more than capable of playing third, short, second, and if we need to go to Lee Ellis we’ll go to him confidently.”
On how South Carolina was able to get to Kentucky starter Mason Moore twice this year
“I don’t know. It’s funny, baseball, again, just like I was just talking about how all three phases you never really know what’ll show up and what won’t. Some matchups just favor you, whether it’s because we’re a heavy left-handed lineup, whether it’s because of the way he pitches, as a guy with certain characteristics to his fastball, some guys get us better than others and some guys we get. But we’ve had two games against him, and we were really good both times, and he’s one of the better pitchers in this league, without question. I just think it’s a game of matchups. I think overall there’s certain teams we match up very well with, and there’s one style of play that has given us a little bit of trouble. It’s really a game of matchups, and I thought we matched up well with Moore.”
On if there has been any different approach with two outs this week
“No, offensively we’ve been much better over the last I’d say five, six weeks, and we haven’t changed our approach. We’ve just gotten better production. Obviously when Messina — Messina for the first half of the season was struggling with runners in scoring position. Now he’s as good as it gets. The game turns like that sometimes, and it gets contagious. When your best guys are doing it, it’s easier for the other guys to follow suit. Our approach doesn’t change, but obviously the results sometimes change.”
On if seeding is irrelevant in the SEC Tournament
“Absolutely. Absolutely. I think what is lost on some people is the context of who you played. A 13-17 record if you’ve played all the top four, five, six teams is different than a 17-13 record if you didn’t. It’s such a small sample size. 30 games is an extremely small sample size when there’s an unbalanced schedule. In the Big Leagues they play 162 and sometimes there’s a one-game gap over who wins a division and who’s a wild card team. If you don’t think there’s a margin for error in a 30-game schedule when it’s an unbalanced schedule, you may play some of the best teams, you may play some of the big teams at the bottom. It’s so random, that 13-17, I don’t think it’s a big enough sample. On top of that, I will say that every team in this league is so damned good that it’s a hit here, it’s a walk there, and it can change by a couple wins either way. It’s a damned good league is how I will sum that answer up.”
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