COLUMBIA, S.C. — As a new season of college baseball cranks up Friday afternoon, the first question for South Carolina head baseball coach Mark Kingston centered around the pressure surrounding his status
His fifth season at the helm saw Carolina finish 27-28, a record that was a product of the pitching staff decimated by injuries and inconsistent hitting and some defensive lapses at times. Regardless of the circumstances, it was the first losing season for the program since 1996.
Kingston will begin his sixth season at the helm and advancing to the regionals will go a long way in determining whether he returns for year seven.
But when faced with that type of scrutiny, Kingston is following the advice he gives his players in that pressure can be lessened through a laser focus on daily preparation and executing at a high level.
"Yeah, the way you handle pressure - for coaches, for players, for anybody in a profession where there's scrutiny and it's tough, you just put your head down and you work," Kingston said Thursday in his first regular season news conference.
"You focus on the things you can control, the things you can have an impact on and you let everything else be what it is. That's the message to the team. That's the message we have as coaches. Just do your job and however things are supposed to be, they'll be. That's the bottom line."
The first pitch of the 2023 season will be thrown shortly after 4:00 p.m. at Founders Park. The Gamecocks begin the season with a three-game series with UMass Lowell.