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South Carolina baseball participant Kennedy Jones discovered himself, unexpectedly, the topic of an internet rumor after his new head coach spoke on the crew’s roster turnover coming into the offseason. Listeners claimed that he’d determined to switch.
Jones shortly shut these lies down, saying he has no plans of coming into the portal.
The Gamecocks employed retired LSU coach Paul Mainieri to switch fired head coach Mark Kingston in Could. The previous Tiger gained a nationwide championship in Baton Rouge in 2009 and completed his Louisiana State tenure with two journeys to the Tremendous Regionals in his remaining three seasons.
Regardless of success, he walked away from the game amid well being considerations.
Mainieri says that after three years on the sidelines, he’s prepared to offer it one other go.
New @GamecockBasebll Head Coach Paul Mainieri walks us by way of his resolution to return to teaching and why he selected South Carolina. pic.twitter.com/NMCNrLKHHu
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) June 20, 2024
“Over the course of those final three years, I’ve simply began to really feel rather more wholesome,” he mentioned on the Paul Finebaum Present earlier this week. “Every year I’ve felt so significantly better, and extra energetic, and so forth. You possibly can solely play a lot golf…
“I used to be actually type of bored. I listened to a few faculties that attempted to get me out of retirement, however they simply weren’t the best match for me. When Ray Tanner known as me only a couple weeks in the past, that was one which bought my consideration. I can’t consider a program that’s any extra like LSU than South Carolina.”
He’s apparently been making the media rounds this week, as he additionally spoke with SportsTalk SC on Thursday to speak about the way forward for his new program.
In doing so, he commented on the outlook of some totally different gamers who’ve selections to make concerning the upcoming season.
Kennedy Jones was introduced into that dialog.
Jones was a stable participant for the Gamecocks in 2024, hitting .289 with 9 bombs and 48 RBIs. The outfielder, who transferred in from UNC Wilmington, was anticipated to be again in Columbia in 2025.
That turned a bit unsure after Paul Mainieri’s SportsTalk interview.
“With the intention to be defensive participant, and offensive participant, you’ve bought to be a fairly good ball participant all-around. Lots of these guys are signing professionally… That’s what we’re looking for [at South Carolina].
“Clearly, we’re looking for some thump in our lineup if we lose Cole Messina, and Kennedy [Jones], and another guys that might hit.”
-Paul Mainieri on the Gamecocks’ MLB Draft outlook
Whereas it appeared Mainieri was hinting at Kennedy Jones opting to forego his remaining 12 months to show professional, some took the remark as a call to depart this system by way of switch.
One now-deleted tweet started to make the rounds Thursday evening with a powerful suggestion that Jones was headed for the portal.
The South Carolina slugger shortly shut the narrative down.
Properly that is information to me ????????????
— Kennedy Jones (@SaucyKen8) June 21, 2024
Additional echoing these sentiments, assistant coach Monte Lee additionally chimed in with a definitive tackle Mainieri’s authentic feedback.
Fully false on Kennedy Jones. Coach Mainieri mentioned the opportunity of dropping Kennedy to the draft as a result of everyone knows he’s a dude. He’s not within the portal.
-Monte Lee / X: CoachMonteLee
That’s that!
Whereas Jones nonetheless has a call to make on whether or not or not he’ll return to the South Carolina baseball crew, these switch rumors will be put to relaxation. The outfielder will now wait to listen to his identify known as within the MLB Draft earlier than shifting ahead along with his future plan.
