Following a 12-11 loss to LSU on Saturday, South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston spoke to the media to break down the game. Here’s what he had to say.
Opening statement
“Yeah, again, I don’t know why every time we play LSU, it gets crazier and crazier and crazier, but that seems to be the trend. Again, I wish we came out on top for our fans, for our players. Just not meant to be sometimes, and it wasn’t meant to be for us today. I can’t wait to watch our team go play in a regional, and hopefully a super regional, and hopefully Omaha after that. Obviously if anybody didn’t believe we were capable of that before this week, I think we passed the eye test. We’re one of the best teams in the country. We’re not perfect. We had some self-inflicted errors in both LSU games that have to be shored up, but they will be, and as I said, I can’t wait to watch this team play a regional.”
On this tournament run and how that will help in the long run
“Yeah, we loved it. Again, it’s the greatest conference in America. It’s the greatest players in America. It’s the greatest coaches in America. I’ll say it’s the greatest umpires in America. It’s the best of everything. It’s the best — like this stadium and what this town does for this week is incredible. I haven’t had anything that reminds me of the Omaha experiences that I’ve had anything more than what is put on this week. It’s everything that everybody that’s in baseball wants to be a part of. It’s tremendous. It was tremendous for me to watch our team. It’s hard to think that you can have significant growth on a team this late in the season, but we did. We did, because there were so many different challenging situations that our kids will be able to learn from. We were able to put so many young guys in situations. Through thick and thin, through good and bad, they’re going to be better because of it. It’s the biggest stage they’ll play on until they get to the Big Leagues. This is a very similar feel to Omaha, especially when you’re the team playing LSU. That was hostile territory out there, and our kids will learn from it. Our kids aren’t perfect. Nobody’s team is perfect. These are 18 to 22, 23 year olds. They’re going to make mistakes. It’s our job to help them get them through it, learn the lesson, and be better because of it. It’s a tremendous week. Hard to think it can get better until you get to Omaha.”
On how to fix the errors this late in the season to work through that, and if that is something you just play through at this point
“You know, we fielded .979 in 30 conference games this yeah. It was not a problem all year. Why it was a problem this week on this field, I don’t know. We’ve got to dig into it, got to talk to our players, communicate a little bit, ask them as we get to a regional, is there anything we can do to help get you more ready. I don’t think there is, because our guys prepare very well. Our guys are good. We fielded .979, that is pretty good all year. For whatever reason that type of defense didn’t show up this week, and we’ll do everything we can to get it better.”
On the balk/interference play in the 10th inning
“Yeah, it was a crazy play honestly. I do want to say on the record that was a very difficult situation for Derek Mollica and that crew, and I think they did everything they could to try to get the call right. I think they did get the call right. That’s not a comfortable situation for umpires to be in. Nobody wants that. I know they don’t want to be at the center of attention, but it was a crazy play. There was a very similar play recently that was kind of almost — if not the identical play, very, very similar. I think we drew on watching that on television and having seen it already. We just thought, hey, let’s bring this up; let’s see what happens and see if we can get the interpretation in our favor.”
On the depth of the SEC
“Well, depth, our depth has depth. Let me put it that way. You’re watching pitchers today that have thrown very few innings and you’ll probably see the same thing tomorrow. You’re watching pitchers that have thrown very few innings all year for these SEC teams that are 96, 97 miles an hour. You’re like, wow, how is this guy not pitching? It’s because of the depth in this league. It’s incredible. It really is. And it’s not going anywhere. It’s only going to get better and better. All the clubs that invest and really do everything they can to try to make sure their programs are in a great place for growth, those are going to be the teams that continue to develop and keep up pace. That’s what this thing is all about. It’s an incredible league. It really is. Like I said, players, coaches, umpires, fans, it’s the best of the best.”
On his takeaways from this week
“Takeaways, couldn’t be prouder of my guys. Couldn’t be prouder of how they handled — I struggle to use the word adversity. You don’t get adversity on a baseball field unless you get injured. Adversity is health problems. Adversity is those types of things. We had failure to deal with this week, but every team has, and I’m just so proud of our guys that they are trying to make sure they learn from the failures, that they handle them properly, and they’re better because of it. But my takeaway is I’m glad the country got to see what we’re all about, what we’re capable of, the good and the bad. We’re not a perfect team. We have some warts that we need to try to cover up at times, but we know how to win, and we can beat anybody. I mean, we’ve shown that. We can beat anybody. Back to the question about the league, too. I’ll just go ahead and say in my opinion every team in our league that gets to the regionals will have a chance to go to Omaha. I don’t think there’s any question about that. It’s going to be a matter of who gets good draws, who’s in a spot where they’re playing hot against teams that maybe are not quite as hot. But every team in our league that gets to a regional will have a chance to go to Omaha.”
On if Blake Jackson was stealing home on his own
“I’m not going to give you the secrets of that play because we might want to pull it out in the future, so I’m just going to leave it at that. Sorry.”
On if he approached the umpires about interference or the ball or a combination of both
“When you go out there — I talked to Derek, and again, I think Derek handled that situation of chaos about as good as you could possibly handle it. It took longer than we all wanted, but I think their goal was to try to get it right. When you go out there for a situation like that, you know there’s a million different things that might lead to something that goes in your favor. Did he step off or did he stay on the rubber, did the catcher come out in front of home plate. All those things, sometimes you roll the dice and you know it might go our way. There are certain times you’re very confident that it will, but you just hope that the interpretation is in your favor.”
On Gavin Casas injury situation one day later
“Yeah, Casas, no positive news on Casas yet. It is a hamate issue, so we’re just going to have to continue to see what the doctors and him come up with and our athletic trainer, Corey Barton, who does a good job. Just going to have to see if they come up with anything that would allow him to play.”
On if Eli Jones got hurt covering first base
“No. He came out just in the interest of, again, making sure all of our pitchers were not overextended this week so they’re ready to go next week.”
On what he learned about handling the pitching staff in a week like this
“Yeah, I hope we don’t have to play five straight games next week. But we had a lot of kids step up. Sam Simpson pitched for the first time in a long time today, and I thought he handled himself well. Eli got us out of a big jam. Matthew Becker had a couple decent outings this weekend. Garrett gave up that home run there at the end, but he’s one of our guys, and that will not change. I thought Roman Kimball really represented himself today and had poise and gave us a chance to win. Even the box score, it’s hard to imagine he gave up four earned runs. That’s probably a topic for an official scorer and myself to talk about. But I thought Roman did a really nice job today and stepped up in a way that was great for him and great for us as we move into the future.”
On if he would change anything from this week with how he handled the pitching to better prepare for the upcoming regional with the possibility of playing five games
“Look, no, you have to make decisions in the moment. You have to live with the results, and then you move on to the next one. Whether it’s who you’re playing, who’s coming in to pitch, do you bunt, do you hit and run, where do you shade your guys. You have to make decisions in the moment that are based on information that you have, and then you live with the results. Baseball — Augie Garrido said it a long time ago and no truer words have ever been spoken: This game was designed to break your heart. It broke our heart today again, but also if you survive it, if you thrive in it, it will make you such a better person moving forward. Look, it broke our heart a little bit this week, but we also played a lot of great baseball. I mean, we’re one of the last four teams standing here. Our kids have nothing to hang their heads about.”
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