Mark Kingston to return as South Carolina baseball coach next season | Source

Cory Diaz, Greenville News
·3 min read
1

COLUMBIA – A subpar season and early exit from the SEC Tournament won't prevent Mark Kingston from returning as South Carolina's baseball coach for a sixth season, a source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Greenville News on Saturday.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because South Carolina has not provided an update on Kingston's job status. Kingston is under contract through 2025.

Kingston will return to USC after the Gamecocks suffered their first losing season since 1996 and missed the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the past three full seasons.

South Carolina was eliminated from the SEC Tournament with an extra-innings loss to Florida in Hoover on Tuesday night, spurring speculation about Kingston's future.

How USC lost to Florida: See UF's Ty Evans score on play-at-the-plate in 10th inning, beat South Carolina baseball

USC key players: Five key South Carolina baseball players to watch during SEC Tournament 2022

NCAA projections: South Carolina baseball still playing for postseason berth as regular season enters final week

Kingston received a contract extension last summer. The new deal didn't raise his annual salary of $600,000 but bumped his buyout back to $2.2 million, a figure that could have played some part in Kingston's return. If USC had decided to move on from Kingston after June 30, his buyout would drop to $1.4 million.

Over the past two seasons, USC has paid out more than $16 million in buyouts to former football coach Will Muschamp, his football assistants and recently fired men's basketball coach Frank Martin.

In five seasons, Kingston has gone 138-109, one of the lower winning percentages (.559) for a baseball coach at USC in recent memory.

History and tradition hails with South Carolina baseball, a program just over a decade removed from capturing back-to-back national championships and playing for a third.

South Carolina coach Mark Kingston walks back to the dugout during an NCAA baseball game against Clemson at Segra Park on Saturday, March 5, 2022, in Columbia, S.C. Clemson won 10-2. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
South Carolina coach Mark Kingston walks back to the dugout during an NCAA baseball game against Clemson at Segra Park on Saturday, March 5, 2022, in Columbia, S.C. Clemson won 10-2. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)

Kingston, however, hasn't lived up to that expectation. He has guided the Gamecocks to just one super regional, two regional berths – one of those as an unintended host as a No. 2 seed in 2021 because Old Dominion's facilities weren't up to NCAA standard – and also missed missed NCAA Tournaments during his tenure.

South Carolina lost several key pitchers – nine in total – in 2022 because of injury, including projected weekend starting pitchers Julian Bosnic and James Hicks. But it has been the offense, where Kingston's coaching background lies, that has left plenty to be desired. The team struggled to another losing SEC record this season at 13-17.

The Gamecocks ranked last in hitting in the SEC in 2022.

"We're all disappointed," Kingston said following the close of South Carolina's season in Hoover. "In my opinion, the word 'context' is what matters most. When you factor in you had 10 pitchers throughout the course of the season that pitched very little or not at all and what kind of impact they would've had on our win-loss record.

"It handcuffed us. It just did."

Cory Diaz covers the South Carolina Gamecocks for The Greenville News as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his work for all things Gamecocks on Twitter: @CoryDiaz_TGN. Got questions regarding South Carolina athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Source: Mark Kingston returns as South Carolina baseball coach in 2023