Although Gamecock baseball's schedule has not been announced, head coach Mark Kingston said he expects the team's schedule will follow the "status quo", especially since the men and women's basketball teams are playing non-conference games and baseball is an outdoor sport.
In a press conference, Thursday morning, Kingston and assistant coach Skylar Meade discussed the recently-concluded fall program and what is to come in Spring 2021 for the Gamecocks.
Kingston said during the seven weeks in the fall program, he felt as though he found good strengths and weaknesses within the team. He said he intends to meet with players one-on-one to help identify those elements of their performance together.
“We learned a lot about our team. We learned about the maturity level of the freshmen and which guys are going to be able to step in right away and which guys need a little bit of developmental time," Kingston said.
Meade said the players this fall are trending towards pivotal positions, with both right and left-handed pitchers.
“I think it’s a pretty diverse group that could do some really good things on the mound,” Meade said.
Meade also said the incoming freshmen are living up to expectations. However, there are inconsistencies, which, according to Meade, are expected for the fall program.
Kingston also said he feels that although there are plenty of "works in progress" following the program, the freshman pitchers have made a large impact this fall, which adds to his optimism for the upcoming season.
“Playing at the SEC level is a lot different than playing at the high school level or even a junior college level sometimes, so these guys will not be perfect," Kingston said. "They’ll have some tough days, they’ll have some great moments, and so it’s up to us just to teach them how to be consistent."
With an allowed forty players on the roster, Kingston said he feels the players are really enjoying being apart of the program and does not anticipate any changes to the roster at this time.
After a struggle offensively in 2019, Kingston said he foresees this being a "very good offensive team," despite being handed some very strong pitching this fall.
With this, Kingston said he has many options for offensive positions and it is “not something that keeps [him] up at night."
There were no COVID-19 cases reported during the fall program, which Kingston said is a "testament to everybody" involved with the baseball program.
“It also takes some luck, let’s be honest," Kingston said. "To me, it takes a village. We say that all the time, and everybody really did their part, and I tip my hat to everybody that we got through this fall unscathed."