Mark Kingston on recent South Carolina losses: 'We gotta pitch better'

Sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug. This weekend, it was Georgia who went on the road and squashed South Carolina in a dominant sweep.

The Gamecock offense knocked in 21 runs across the three games yet were still outscored by a total of 18 runs by the Bulldogs, who averaged 13 runs per contest and reached double figures in each win. After the sweep, South Carolina coach Mark Kingston didn’t express any disappointment in his team’s offense but admitted the pitching just wasn’t acceptable this weekend.

“I mean, we knew they were really good coming in and I think we’re really good too. This last two days doesn’t change that. I mean, we scored 15 runs in two days, too,” Kingston said. “That’s not an offense that’s not playing pretty well right now. But we got to pitch better. That’s obvious. And it’s a good offense and we’ve just got to figure out: why are they on every pitch we’re throwing?”

Carolina couldn’t crack that question all weekend en route to their worst series of the season by far. In a follow-up question at the postgame press conference, Kingston also addressed the continued poor play of starting pitcher Eli Jones, who began the year well but has struggled mightily as of late.

“I mean, look, Eli’s got to be better,” Kingston stated bluntly. “He has been better in the past and we need him to be better. We need him to figure it out.”

Mark Kingston has full faith in Jones as a player and teammate, but at some point, he needs his starter to return to form.

“Again, nobody works harder than Eli, nobody wants it more than Eli, but he’s just not as good right now as he was earlier in the season and we need him to be,” Kingston said. “So, we have his back, we’ll continue to to give him opportunities, but we need better from Eli. He knows that we know that and we have his back through that, but we need more production there.”

Jones suffered a tough start Friday, allowing 10 hits and seven earned runs in just 3.0 innings of work. The day before, starter Roman Kimball didn’t even record two outs before he was yanked after allowing four runs in the top of the first.

Just a tough weekend all the way around for South Carolina, especially their starting pitching.