As the offseason begins, South Carolina will be looking for new leadership in its baseball program.
After seven seasons with the Gamecocks, now-former head coach Mark Kingston has been fired, according to multiple reports, including D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers. TheBigSpur’s John Whittle first reported the news.
The decision comes after the Gamecocks concluded the 2024 season with a 2-0 loss to James Madison on Sunday. This is now the fourth season in six tries that Kingston’s teams have failed to make it past regional play.
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In what was an up and down campaign, South Carolina finished the year 37-25 and went 13-17 in SEC play. The Gamecocks made a run in the SEC Tournament to the semifinals, the furthest they’ve made it since 2017. Once they got into the NCAA Tournament, they went 1-2 in the Raleigh Regional.
They’d win the first game of the regional against James Madison with a thrilling walk-off victory. But they’d then lose a tough one against NC State in the winner’s bracket matchup. Come Sunday, the offense had no answers for JMU in the rematch.
For Kingston, his tenure featured plenty of highs and lows. He wraps up his time in Columbia with a 217-155record. While the overall record is respectable, how his teams did in conference play tells a different story.
In six seasons, since the Gamecocks didn’t play SEC games in 2020, they went 83-96 (.464). Kingston finished above .500 in SEC play in three seasons, but he also finished below .500 in three other seasons. And he also never finished above third place in the SEC East standings. His lowest placing was fifth, which he did in 2019 and 2022.
Speaking of 2022, Kingston led the first team at South Carolina to end the season with a losing record for the first time since 1996. That year, longtime head coach June Raines resigned after going 25-28. Ray Tanner came into the picture in 1997 and led the Gamecocks to two national championship victories.
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Back to Kingston, his tenure got off to a promising start as South Carolina finished third in the SEC East in 2018. It would sweep through regional play and come up one win short of making it to the College World Series after losing a pivotal game three to Arkansas in the Super Regionals.
In every season since, that would be the closest Kingston got to making it to Omaha. In 2019, South Carolina missed the postseason after going 28-28 and 8-22 in SEC play. The Gamecocks got back to the postseason in 2021 but missed out again the following year.
Then there was 2023. With arguably one of his best teams to date, South Carolina was ranked as high as No. 3 in the country. But for multiple reasons, mainly injuries, the Gamecocks slipped in the rankings down the stretch and ended up being the No. 15 national seed in the NCAA Tournament. They’d host and sweep through a regional before watching their season come to an end at the hands of Florida in the Gainesville Super Regional.
With the 2024 season at an end and Kingston gone, South Carolina will begin its latest coaching search in hopes of returning to Omaha for the first time since 2012.
Additionally, the NCAA transfer portal is open from now until July 2.
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