Holbrook's process shines through as Gamecocks win SEC East
Coming off a season where the Gamecocks didn’t make the postseason for the first time in 15 years and coming into the season with more questions than answers, they knew it was an uphill battle.
Consider the hill—at least for the moment—climbed.
South Carolina clinched its first SEC East title since 2011 with a victory over Alabama on Saturday. On a team with more freshman and sophomores than juniors and seniors, this team fought adversity all season and was rewarded with one of the top prizes in the SEC.
“From the moment we started in the fall, the makeup in our locker room—from the new guys who came in—was about winning,” senior infielder DC Arendas said. “For the guys who were here last year and experienced the disappointment and struggle, we just wanted to give everything we had everyday. There’s always going to be talent on our team but it was about guys loving being around each other and wanting to work everyday.”
And on Sunday, it was those younger guys recruited to play solely under head coach Chad Holbrook who stole the show. John Jones, who came in this year as a transfer, drove in four of the team’s nine run and Reed Scott and Tyler Johnson both were shutdown in the late innings to cement the win.
“It’s awesome. It’s a reward to show we’ve played the right way up until this point. We didn’t get too down when we’d lose series, we kept fighting and put ourselves in a good position,” Jones said. “I’m proud of my team, I’m proud to be a part of it.”
Holbrook, who has faced criticism all season for game management and ability to lead, won his first SEC East championship and is in line for a top-eight national seed in the NCAA Tournament.
After the game, Scott said winning today just shows Holbrook was headed in the right direction when he took the program over after the 2012 season.
“It shows that he’s being doing it right the whole time,” Scott said. “He’s had us behind him the whole time. We’ve trusted him the whole time: through the fall, through the spring and coming in with a lot of question marks this year. And for him to be our leader, it’s nice to see it pay off.”
Holbrook, who flashed a smile from the time the game ended until the time he walked to the bus, kept putting the spotlight on his team, saying it’s them buying into the process.
But for right now, the process is working.
“They’ve always believed in the program. It’s not about me. It’s about them. When you coach in the SEC and you play in this league, you can have some tough weekends, you can have some tough games you can have some tough years,” Holbrook said. “It’s the nature of the beast. When you have those type of years, you have to have a competitive group to pick themselves up off the mat and get back at it and have the right kind of attitude. And this group did.”
