Mark Kingston Discusses Pitching Situation Going Into Regionals
When it comes to postseason play, there are many factors that carry over from the regular season that change drastically. The intensity of every play is ratcheted up, the home crowds unleash more charged emotions, and the coaches are forced to play a more sophisticated chess game regarding their strategy.
This strategy can range from their batting lineup to their in-game decisions and especially their choices on who pitches in what games, the latter of which was brought up to the sixth-year head coach on Thursday.
"There's all types of ways to set yourself up. It's like card-playing; you've gotta try to win your hand and make moves that affect the entire weekend," Kingston stated. "We're gonna play it pretty straight up this weekend. It all requires a little risk, but as I've told these guys, we're gonna play to win this regional the best way we can. We're not gonna hold back, and we're not gonna play scared."
One thing that South Carolina Gamecock fans will be paying close attention to is how Kingston and his staff utilize junior right-hander Will Sanders, who'll be in action for the first time in almost a month after dealing with a lower-body injury late in the regular season. While Sanders will be ready this weekend, he'll serve more of swiss-army knife type role in regional play.
"Pretty much everything's on the table other than asking him to throw 100 pitches in one outing as a starter, but we'll use him as we see fit where we think it makes the most sense. I think you could see him more than once this weekend potentially. Just gonna have to see how it goes, how comfortable he looks once he gets on the mound, and we'll take it from there."
Mark Kingston also let the media in on some good news regarding South Carolina's best reliever, Chris Veach, who, after dealing with a hip injury since the last week of the regular season, is close to fully healthy for the postseason.
"He should be one hundred percent. This break is gonna be good for a lot of guys," Kingston stated. I think these eight days has been really good for us, and we had a lot of guys banged. I think we're gonna be about as healthy and feel about as good as we can going into this weekend."
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