COLUMBIA, S.C. — First-year coach Mark Kingston knew the only way he could jolt South Carolina out of its midseason funk was getting back to the basics of baseball — good pitches, good swings and good gloves.
It worked.
The once struggling Gamecocks turned things around, landed a spot in the NCAA Tournament and are headed to the super regionals as one of the final 16 teams standing.
"They could've mailed it in a long time ago," said Kingston, hired last June as just South Carolina's third baseball coach in 21 years. "They didn't. They refused to give in.