Mark Kingston hopeful new-look pitching staff will improve over fall and spring

South Carolina’s strengths and weaknesses were clear a year ago. The pitching was superb but the offense was a work in progress.

But now, the roles are reversed. The Gamecocks lost a ton of pitching, including Jack Mahoney, Noah Hall, Will Sanders, Cade Austin and James Hicks to the MLB Draft. On the flip side, the hitting core remains intact with key pieces from a regional-winning squad back for another go at it.

With fall practice set to get going this week, South Carolina is hopeful its new-look pitching staff can replicate what the offense turned into last year.

“That turned out pretty well. So we’re hoping it’s history repeating itself. Just the reverse side,” head coach Mark Kingston said.

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The pitching staff does return some arms, including Eli Jones and Matthew Becker, who combined to make 17 starts last year. Notre Dame transfer Roman Kimball will be back from Tommy John surgery and will compete for a spot in the weekend rotation.

However, it looks to be an entirely new staff with each spot up for grabs.

“I think we have the arms, I think we have the talent and depth from a pitching standpoint to get the job done,” Kingston said. “It’s just a matter of which guys are going to make the most progress with Matt Williams, our pitching coach, who takes the reins and gets the biggest role.”

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Williams, a longtime assistant at UNC Wilmington and Liberty, has a great track record of developing talent. He’s seen 35 pitchers sign professional contracts, five of which have made their MLB debuts. Now, he’ll be tasked with shaping this pitching staff. But he won’t have a clear-cut look at each pitcher.

Chris Veach, last year’s closer, “most likely” won’t pitch this fall due to a hip injury. Kimball isn’t likely to see the mound until after the fall. Michael Polk and Ricky Williams are both recovering from Tommy John, keeping them out from any action right now. Kingston also said freshman left-hander Jake McCoy probably won’t pitch in the fall.

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Eli Jerzembeck, who made three starts last year, had elbow surgery back in May. So he’s out for the season. Freshman righty Reese Marcum will also miss the season with the same injury.

“Obviously, things can change. But we’re going to be conservative with those pitchers to make sure they’re ready for the spring,” Kingston said.

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There’s a lot of questions about what this staff will ultimately look like come Opening Day 2024. But Kingston pointed out how he had no idea how the offense was going to be and it turned out fine.

“I think you look at the pitching now in the same way,” Kingston said. “There are some very talented freshmen in this class, very talented. And so, it’s just a matter of are they ready? And that’s a long time to evaluate them. We’ve got the entire fall, we’ve got spring.

“A lot of them will improve between the fall and then the beginning of the spring. So it’s a long way to go again as a coach, as a staff. We’re going to keep our eyes open. We’re going to coach them hard and help them continue to improve and then figure out who were the best guys with the roles once we get to the spring. But it’s going to take strike throwers…It’s going to take guys that have out pitches, all those things matter. So we have the next six months, seven months to figure all those things out.”

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