One inning into his tenure as South Carolina baseball coach on Friday, new coach Mark Kingston looked like a genius as the Gamecocks’ lackluster offense of last season churned out four runs against VMI.
From there on out, however, things returned to a familiar, frustrating pattern for USC fans, as the offense cooled off dramatically and junior starting pitcher Adam Hill, USC’s presumed ace, pitched nothing like the sort in a 7-6 defeat to open the 2018 season at Founders Park.
Early on, there were sparks of the dynamic offense Kingston hinted at during the preseason — with two outs in the first, sophomore left fielder Carlos Cortes collected the first Gamecock hit of the season with a double to left.