3 things we learned from South Carolina baseball’s scrimmage vs. Air Force
The past five months of South Carolina have been about everything except for actual baseball.
It was kick-started in early June, when coach Mark Kingston was fired just days after the Gamecocks failed to advance to an NCAA super regional. Then came a search full of speculation, where it seemed like two dozen names were mentioned for the job before South Carolina hired the guy no one thought of.
Former LSU coach Paul Mainieri, a 2009 national champion with the Tigers, came out of retirement to take the South Carolina job. Convinced by his friend, South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner, the 66-year-old Mainieri decided to show folks that an old dog can still learn the tricks of the transfer portal and NIL.
That was in mid-June. Since then, Mainieri held on to a Kingston holdover, Monte Lee, and made him the highest-paid assistant in college baseball. They signed player after player from the transfer portal. Tanner, the legendary baseball coach, abruptly announced he was “transitioning roles” and would soon leave his post as athletic director. Then, on Friday, USC named the baseball field after Tanner.
On Saturday, South Carolina played a baseball game. Not a real one, but a 14-inning exhibition against the Air Force Academy. The Gamecocks won 18-3. Here are three things we learned.
1. There are a lot of new faces in the lineup
South Carolina rolled out a starting batting order with 10 names. Remember, this is a scrimmage. There are no rules.
Regardless, the 10 names somehow fall into two very-clear categories.
Starter for South Carolina last season (5): 3B Ethan Petry, C Talmadge LeCroy, 1B Will Tippett, LF Kennedy Jones and DH Blake Jackson.
Transfer (5): CF Nathan Hall (Clemson), SS Henry Kaczmar (Ohio State), RF Dalton Mashore (St. Mary’s), 2B Cayden Gaskin (NW Florida St. College) and DH Nolan Nawrocki (Clemson).
Perhaps that is simply what happens in the transfer portal era. New coach comes in, brings in a flurry of his players and some of the younger talent leaves for the chance to play immediately.
Consider this: Aside from those five returning starters, only three position players from last year’s roster are back in the garnet and black. That’s staggering.
But in short order, Mainieri kept South Carolina’s top talent and then complemented it with players he was able to hand pick out of the portal.
Through one semi-real game, the newcomers certainly look the part. The five transfers in the starting lineup were 8 for 21 (.380) with four RBIs.
The star, though, was the same star from last year and the year before: Petry. The junior played all 14 innings, going 4 for 7 with a double and an RBI.
2. The pitchers were attacking
It’s silly to extrapolate what happened in an October scrimmage to what might happen in May.
At this stage of the year — months before the actual season starts — hitters are usually ahead of pitchers. If the Gamecocks’ arms got lit up Saturday — even considering most guys only threw an inning — it would not have been a reason for real concern.
Yet, the exact opposite happened. South Carolina pitched really well. In 14 innings, Air Force notched just five hits and three runs against more than a dozen Gamecocks pitchers.
Pitching coach “Terry Rooney has done a tremendous job with those guys,” Mainieri said. “They’re improving. ... I think we have a lot of guys who are gonna be able to compete favorably for us.”
Starter Eli Jerzembeck, who missed all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery, was the only USC pitcher to pitch two innings. Facing a different team for the first time in a while, he struggled and gave up three hits and two runs while walking a trio of batters.
The most-impressive part: The Gamecocks threw strikes. They attacked the zone and had stuff good enough to miss bats, striking out 22 batters in 14 innings. The 11 walks were too many, but the Gamecocks only issued four walks in the final 10 innings.
This just a year after South Carolina’s inconsistent pitching staff ranked ninth in the SEC in strikeouts and 10th in walks.
3. Mainieri is already drawing folks to the ballpark
This game was scheduled because, three decades ago, Mainieri lived in Colorado Springs and coached at the Air Force Academy. He developed a great appreciation of the military and has tried to support the academies as much as he can.
“We admire their kids so much because of what they’re doing for our country,” Mainieri said. “Our players, they understand the significance of who we played tonight.”
Saturday was an early example of that.
And while it was a great gesture to the Air Force program, inviting the Falcons to come scrimmage an SEC squad, it was also a heck of a way to draw fans to Founders Park on a Gamecock football bye week.
This was an exhibition baseball game with a flyover and parachutists. When the Wings of Blue jump team, there were a few thousand people looking to the sky with awe as, one after another, skydivers circled into the park and landed just behind second base.
South Carolina reported an attendance of 2,621, and, just by the eye test, Saturday’s crowd looked like it would for a normal midweek game.
Maybe that was partly because of Mainieri. Maybe because of the Air Force parachutists. Maybe because it was a way to spend a nice Saturday outside. Whatever the reason, people showed up, and that’s a good way to kick off a new era.
This story was originally published October 26, 2024 at 10:08 PM.
