Another season comes to an end, and now a long wait till the offseason. I could spend the whole post complaining about our hitting, but I think most people get the idea... we weren't very good at it. It wasn't the opponents, or that we had a really hard schedule.... we just weren't good hitting the baseball. What we lacked in hitting, we made up for in pitching. Our pitchers were truly elite. They proved it in that regional, with our bullpen giving up 1 run in 3 games. If you had told me that we would hold Old Dominion to 2 runs (1 of them walked in), I would have assumed we won the game, even taking into account how bad our hitting is. And we nearly did. Just not enough went our way.
Overall, in my opinion, this season can be summed up with the word "disappointing". We certainly weren't as terrible as we were in 2019 (although we may have been as bad hitting), and I actually still think we were a good team overall, but you can't argue with the facts. This team pretty much disappointed at every turn. After an 11-0 start, with fans eagerly awaiting to see how we would fare against the first ranked opponent we played, the team promptly lost 6 straight, 3 to Texas, 1 to Davidson, 2 to Vandy. Then, with the sweep of Florida, win @ Georgia, Missouri, and @LSU, most people were ready to get right back on the train. Only to then lose all of our remaining series except a pretty bad Kentucky team, go 0-1 in Hoover, and then 1-2 in the tournament. Certainly, the team could have been way worse. Plenty of teams don't even make the tournament. But in a lot of ways, that's even harder as a fan. In 2019, you knew halfway through that it wasn't getting any better. But this year's team made you hope that some magic run could come together. That leadoff double, turned into nothing, in the 9th inning against Tennessee in the rubber match became a bit emblematic of the season. Overall, it's going down as a "meh" season in my record book.
So where does that leave us with our skipper? First things first, I haven't seen much of it, but obviously we shouldn't fire Kingston this year. Some people don't really realize what a drastic step that is. Firing a coach (even a bad one) can set a program back years. Just look at Muschamp, who absolutely deserved and needed to be fired. The 2021 recruiting class fell to #80 nationally after his firing. We essentially lost almost an entire recruiting class. Now, it was worth it, because Muschamp was never going to be able to recruit here again with his record. Kingston isn't the same. He has actually recruited pretty well here. As for the results, I think "meh" is a pretty good word to use there too. He went to the Supers in year 1, which gets a "great year" in my book. Year 2 was bad, no debate there. Year 3 was "meh" as I said. I think Year 4 will be telling as far as what direction the program looks to be heading.
To start with the pros, I think Kingston is a great recruiter, and the pitching staff he built here this year was phenomenal. On to the negatives; obviously, I don't have to say much about his hitting problems, so I'll harp on a different thing. I really disagree heavily with a lot of the in-game management decisions Kingston makes. I always have. He has always had a problem with when to pull pitchers. In 2019 and the short 2020, he would constantly trot guys out there who everyone knew couldn't throw a strike unless they threw it right down the middle, and they would consistently put us in a deep hole. In both those years, we didn't have a great bullpen. This year, with more guys he could trust and a fantastic bullpen, I thought that would be less of a problem. But it still was, headlined yesterday in the Old Dominion game. Obviously pitching didn't lose us the game, but the decision to leave Farr in there at over 100 pitches and intentionally walk the bases loaded was one of the dumbest I've seen. I instantly texted my dad that Farr was liable to walk in a run, which he proceeded to do. When we put in Sanders after that, he was lights out, but it didn't matter, we lost 2-1. Kingston defending that decision in the post-game presser is very concerning. It honestly gave me flashbacks to Muschamp whining about how punting against UNC on 4th and inches was the right decision. It just shows an inability to admit and learn from mistakes. And Kingston does seem to make the same mistakes as far as game-management over and over and over again. I'm not a baseball coach. Kingston knows a lot more about baseball than I do. But when he is constantly doing things that fans are groaning about as he is doing them, and then they don't work out, it is very frustrating. Not giving players a take sign on a 3-0 count when they bat .210. Seemingly random decisions to bunt/not bunt that don't seem to really take into account at all who is at the plate. Not arguing or challenging seemingly close plays when we have challenges in our pocket. Etc. Etc.
I'll miss seeing our guys compete on the diamond for another year. Now, for the long and dreaded sports hibernation in the offseason. I have a hunch that my Gamecocks team in NCAA football 2014 is going to win the national title this year. Next up: Beamer Ball. Go Gamecocks!
Overall, in my opinion, this season can be summed up with the word "disappointing". We certainly weren't as terrible as we were in 2019 (although we may have been as bad hitting), and I actually still think we were a good team overall, but you can't argue with the facts. This team pretty much disappointed at every turn. After an 11-0 start, with fans eagerly awaiting to see how we would fare against the first ranked opponent we played, the team promptly lost 6 straight, 3 to Texas, 1 to Davidson, 2 to Vandy. Then, with the sweep of Florida, win @ Georgia, Missouri, and @LSU, most people were ready to get right back on the train. Only to then lose all of our remaining series except a pretty bad Kentucky team, go 0-1 in Hoover, and then 1-2 in the tournament. Certainly, the team could have been way worse. Plenty of teams don't even make the tournament. But in a lot of ways, that's even harder as a fan. In 2019, you knew halfway through that it wasn't getting any better. But this year's team made you hope that some magic run could come together. That leadoff double, turned into nothing, in the 9th inning against Tennessee in the rubber match became a bit emblematic of the season. Overall, it's going down as a "meh" season in my record book.
So where does that leave us with our skipper? First things first, I haven't seen much of it, but obviously we shouldn't fire Kingston this year. Some people don't really realize what a drastic step that is. Firing a coach (even a bad one) can set a program back years. Just look at Muschamp, who absolutely deserved and needed to be fired. The 2021 recruiting class fell to #80 nationally after his firing. We essentially lost almost an entire recruiting class. Now, it was worth it, because Muschamp was never going to be able to recruit here again with his record. Kingston isn't the same. He has actually recruited pretty well here. As for the results, I think "meh" is a pretty good word to use there too. He went to the Supers in year 1, which gets a "great year" in my book. Year 2 was bad, no debate there. Year 3 was "meh" as I said. I think Year 4 will be telling as far as what direction the program looks to be heading.
To start with the pros, I think Kingston is a great recruiter, and the pitching staff he built here this year was phenomenal. On to the negatives; obviously, I don't have to say much about his hitting problems, so I'll harp on a different thing. I really disagree heavily with a lot of the in-game management decisions Kingston makes. I always have. He has always had a problem with when to pull pitchers. In 2019 and the short 2020, he would constantly trot guys out there who everyone knew couldn't throw a strike unless they threw it right down the middle, and they would consistently put us in a deep hole. In both those years, we didn't have a great bullpen. This year, with more guys he could trust and a fantastic bullpen, I thought that would be less of a problem. But it still was, headlined yesterday in the Old Dominion game. Obviously pitching didn't lose us the game, but the decision to leave Farr in there at over 100 pitches and intentionally walk the bases loaded was one of the dumbest I've seen. I instantly texted my dad that Farr was liable to walk in a run, which he proceeded to do. When we put in Sanders after that, he was lights out, but it didn't matter, we lost 2-1. Kingston defending that decision in the post-game presser is very concerning. It honestly gave me flashbacks to Muschamp whining about how punting against UNC on 4th and inches was the right decision. It just shows an inability to admit and learn from mistakes. And Kingston does seem to make the same mistakes as far as game-management over and over and over again. I'm not a baseball coach. Kingston knows a lot more about baseball than I do. But when he is constantly doing things that fans are groaning about as he is doing them, and then they don't work out, it is very frustrating. Not giving players a take sign on a 3-0 count when they bat .210. Seemingly random decisions to bunt/not bunt that don't seem to really take into account at all who is at the plate. Not arguing or challenging seemingly close plays when we have challenges in our pocket. Etc. Etc.
I'll miss seeing our guys compete on the diamond for another year. Now, for the long and dreaded sports hibernation in the offseason. I have a hunch that my Gamecocks team in NCAA football 2014 is going to win the national title this year. Next up: Beamer Ball. Go Gamecocks!
