Destino at 1B among questions needing answers as final scrimmages begin
South Carolina begins the final weekend of scrimmages on Thursday with plenty of key questions requiring answers before the Feb. 19 season opener against Albany at Founders Park.
Among them is where to play sophomore Alex Destino, who primarily served as USC’s designated hitter in 2015. However, coach Chad Holbrook wants the Weaverville, NC, native to play in the field this season. His most logical landing spot? First base.
“He is going to play first base some to start the season,” Holbrook said. “I don’t know about every day. Right now, for me to put together the offensive lineup I want to put out there, I need Destino playing a position. We’re going to need him to play first base (rather than the outfield) because then we’re taking a very good athlete off the field.”
Destino batted just .251 as a freshman last season as he transitioned from high school star into major college baseball. But his performance in the first two scrimmage weekends point to posting much better numbers in 2016.
“He looks like one of the best hitters in the country right now,” Holbrook said. “Hopefully, he will have a consistent year and keep swinging it like he’s swinging it now.”
USC’s first scrimmage of the weekend is scheduled for Thursday at 3:45 p.m. The Gamecocks will also scrimmage Friday at 4 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m.
Unlike the previous two weekends, Holbrook plans to put the projected starters on the same team.
After struggling with an anemic .257 team batting average, improvement at the plate is vital this season if the Gamecocks want to return to the NCAA Tournament following a one-year hiatus in 2015. So far, Holbrook is pleased with the progress he has seen from the bats through the first two weekends.
“Our hitters are getting their feet under them a little bit,” Holbrook said. “Their timing is getting better. We’ve put some hits together and had some good swings of the bat. We have to clean some stuff up. We have a long way to go.
“But I was impressed with our at-bats (last weekend). We had some good at-bats against some talented pitchers. That’s a good sign for our offensive productivity, for sure.”
Along with Destino, JUCO transfer catcher John Jones has been swinging a hot bat and could wind up in the middle of the order.
“With the way he is swinging the bat, Jones is going to be in the middle of our lineup somewhere,” Holbrook said.
Has Jones moved ahead of sophomore Hunter Taylor and freshman Chris Cullen in the battle for the starting job at catcher? The final three scrimmages could provide the answer.
“I like how all three bring something good to our team,” Holbrook said. “We’re going to need all three of them at some point this year. With that being said, I feel good about playing two of them at the same time, one behind the plate and one DHing.
“I could even play all three at the same time if we put Cullen at first. All three are a big part of the team. Obviously, all three won’t play the same amount of time. But I love all three of them. Jones is a physical presence for us in the middle of the lineup. Hunter does a lot of things well and he has some experience.”
Holbrook saw too many defensive lapses in last weekend’s scrimmages, but blamed the erratic glovework on some players being out of position along with the absences of infielders D.C. Arendas and Madison Stokes.
“We had some guys playing all over the place,” Holbrook said. “D.C. wasn’t here, Madison wasn’t here. We were experimenting with a few guys. So, I’m not concerned about it. That being said, we have to work on making it hard for our opponents to score.
“That has been one of our trademarks. As we get closer to opening day, I’m getting a feeling about where we’re going to put guys. Hopefully, that will put them in a better place mentally as far as how we play defense.”
