South Carolina shortstop Will Tippett has missed nearly two weeks after being hit in the head during an at bat in the Gamecocks series against Arkansas.
Tippett was placed into concussion protocol and has also been battling a minor knee injury.
Gamecocks coach Mark Kingston provided an update on Tippett after Wednesday night’s 15-2 victory over East Tennessee State.
“Will Tippett is TBD,” Mark Kingston said.
Tippett has started 36 of the 37 games he has appeared in this season. He is hitting .178 with three home runs and 18 RBIs. With Tippett sidelined, South Carolina has turned to several different lineups.
On Wednesday, it was Talmadge LeCroy who was the starting shortstop. Freshman Lee Ellis has also filled in at times with Tippett out.
South Carolina is coming off of a big series win over a top-5 Kentucky team and now travels to Missouri. Kingston said that he hasn’t studied the Tigers much yet, but he will do plenty of film study before Friday night’s series opener.
“All of our focus was on this game tonight. So we’ll get to work tonight and tomorrow, Kingston said. “I can’t speak on Missouri yet. … My focus was on this game tonight.”
The Gamecocks have been playing well as of late and will look to keep that going against a Missouri team that is 20-26 (6-15) on the year.
Meanwhile South Carolina is 30-14 (11-10) and 9-4 in its past 13 games.
“I’m not going to jinx it and say we’re peaking right now. I’m just going to say that we’re improving, we’re evolving,” Kingston said. ” That’s probably the best word, we’re evolving. We’re turning into what we thought we could be. And I just want to see that continue.
“I know I say that a lot, but we are improving and we are evolving and that’s what you want to see out of the good teams at the end of the year.”
As for Wednesday night’s dominant victory, the Gamecocks fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first, before responding with 15 unanswered runs.
Ethan Petry, Cole Messina, Kennedy Jones and Dalton Reeves all homered for the Gamecocks in the victory.
Entering this weekend’s pivotal series at Missouri, South Carolina has scored 10-plus runs in three straight games.
“A great game for us, obviously,” Kingston said. “That was a good team we played tonight — 27 wins coming in. … The fact that we won 15-2 and gave up three hits, had 14 ourself, just thrilled with what that team looked like tonight.”
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