Opening Day W: Gamecocks baseball starts Paul Mainieri era with win over Sacred Heart
Eight months after South Carolina brought a 66-year-old head coach out of retirement to revive a baseball powerhouse, Paul Mainieri is officially a winner at South Carolina.
Mainieri and the Gamecocks beat Sacred Heart 5-3 on Opening Day on Friday at Founders Park, scoring runs in the seventh and eighth innings after the MAAC squad from Connecticut tied the game in the sixth.
For Mainieri, it’s win No. 1,502 across 40 years and now five teams in his college baseball coaching career. Following the game, South Carolina Athletic Director Jeremiah Donati — who threw out the first pitch Friday — presented Mainieri with the final out ball from his first victory as a Gamecock.
And, for better or worse, Mainieri was thrown back into the coaching fire after a three-year hiatus. He was forced to make tense bullpen decisions and was forced to listen to “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” needing his offense to come alive.
They did and Mainieri could celebrate a smooth transition back to the top step.
“It’s like riding a bike,” Mainieri said after Friday’s game. “It was good to be back. I enjoy being in the tough moments and trying to show some leadership.”
Here are three things we learned from Friday:
1. Dylan Eskew was solid. But is he a Friday starter?
You cannot start Opening Day better than Eskew. The senior right-hander from Tampa finally got the chance to open the baseball season on the bump and proceeded to look unhittable, striking out the first four batters.
“I was really proud of Dylan,” Mainieri said. “He did exactly what I expected him to do and why we gave him the ball on the first night.”
In five innings of work, he fanned nine Sacred Heart batters, impressive enough to take a peek at the USC record for strikeouts in a game (It’s 17).
Eskew is almost a pitcher of a prior generation. He has a five-pitch arsenal, more equipped to beat you with movement than velocity. His fastball starts off in the low 90s and dips to the high 80s after a few innings — which is only relevant because, after a few innings, he got in trouble.
Eskew loaded the bases with no outs in the third, but ultimately got out of the jam and only allowed one run (his only earned run of the night). He also hit four batters, which might just be a sign of first-game jitters but wasn’t a great sign.
Overall, Eskew delivered a heck of a performance, allowing just one run and three hits while striking out nine in five innings. There were some bumps, but if he does that every Friday, Eskew would be one of the best pitchers in the SEC.
“The kid pitched his heart out,” Mainieri said of Eskew. “He was magnificent.”
2. Ethan Petry is still really good
The countdown is officially on. Eighteen to go.
Petry accelerated his chase toward breaking the South Carolina home-run record. He clobbered a 403-foot bomb to dead center in the third inning. It was his 45th home run in a Gamecock uniform — putting him just 18 shy of breaking Justin Smoak’s all-time record.
On any team, Petry is going to have to carry a load. But on this Gamecocks squad — which lost catcher Cole Messina — Petry is USC’s power outlet. This Gamecocks team does not have any true power hitters, any true sluggers … aside from Petry.
That means a lot falls on the back of No. 20. Through one game, he looks up to the task.
3. Parker Marlatt was USC’s savior
There was a bit of question as to who could be South Carolina’s long-inning relief guy. Who could bail them out when someone got into trouble early?
The initial thought was senior lefty Matthew Becker or Jake McCoy, but both earned starting spots as Eli Jerzembeck deals with an injury. If there was a search, it’s over. Parker Marlatt is the guy.
The sophomore right-hander, who appeared in 21 games for USC last season, ran in from the bullpen in the sixth inning. He hadn’t pitched in a real college game in over 250 days and he took the mound on Opening Day facing bases loaded with one out in a one-run game. If he needed a few extra breaths on the mound, who could blame him?
“(Pitching coach Terry) Rooney emphasizes, ‘The bigger the moment, the bigger the breath,’” Marlatt said.
Expect he didn’t need anything. The 5-foot-11 sophomore struck out the first batter. Next, he induced a little chopper that probably should’ve ended the inning, but dribbled slowly enough that South Carolina couldn’t convert.
If the Gamecocks had bad juju, it would’ve appeared right here. Instead, two pitches later, Marlatt induced an infield pop-out to get out of the inning.
“Obviously the kid has a lot of poise and composure,” Mainieri said.
He finished the outing having tossed 2.2 innings while giving up just two hits and striking out five batters.
USC baseball schedule: Next 4 games
- Saturday vs. Sacred Heart, 2 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Sunday vs. Sacred Heart, noon (SEC Network Plus)
- Tuesday at Winthrop, 4 p.m. (ESPN+)
- Wednesday vs. Queens, 4 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
This story was originally published February 14, 2025 at 7:13 PM.
