Familiarity all over South Carolina-Clemson series. Just not with the head coaches
Paul Mainieri didn’t ask for a history lesson on Batgate, but he got one anyway.
The 67-year-old South Carolina head coach learned of one of the more tense moments in the Carolina-Clemson rivalry, when in 2011 — a year after the Gamecocks and Tigers met in the College World Series — Clemson coach Jack Leggett accused USC star Jackie Bradley Jr. of swinging a “hot bat.”
Leggett accused Bradley of heating his bat to make the lumber more flexible, an assertion that USC coach Ray Tanner didn’t appreciate.
“I’m offended by it. I don’t cheat,” Tanner said then. “I don’t allow my players to cheat. We haven’t done anything wrong.”
Told this bit of Palmetto Series lore, Mainieri looked mortified.
“Jackie Bradley?!” Mainieri asked. “He’s one of the nicest kids you’ll ever meet. He wouldn’t do anything like that.”
The idea that tensions would rise to that extreme between himself and current Clemson coach Erik Bakich seems impossible to Mainieri. Though the first-year USC coach admitted he didn’t know Bakich much, they have a great mutual friend in East Carolina coach Cliff Godwin, who has always said great things about Bakich, his former college teammate.
And just to start off on the right foot, Mainieri called Bakich upon taking the South Carolina job this summer.
“It was very cordial,” Mainieri said. “I don’t think it has to be where the person is a mortal enemy.”
That is from the mouth of someone who has yet to experience the Carolina-Clemson rivalry, who moved to the Soda City and was flabbergasted that fans would approach him and all they cared about was beating Clemson.
Bakich will be coaching in his third Palmetto Series this weekend and, though not a veteran of the rivalry, he seems to have his messaging in line with Tigers fans.
He said Mainieri is a “nice man,” but wouldn’t go so far as to call him a friend.
“I don’t think we’re there,” Bakich told reporters this week. “Nor would I ever be there with the South Carolina coach.”
Now that sounds like someone who’s been through the fire of this rivalry.
And Bakich is far from alone. On his staff is Leggett, the longtime Clemson coach who battled Tanner’s teams for years. On Mainieri’s staff is Monte Lee, who knows this rivalry all too well. He was a USC assistant under Tanner and later became Leggett’s successor, spending seven seasons as Clemson’s head coach before the Tigers fired him in 2022.
And then there are the transfers.
Over the past three seasons, five players have left Clemson for South Carolina. Ahead of the 2023 season, Dylan Brewer, Jonathan French and Ricky Williams traded orange for garnet. This offseason, Nathan Hall and Nolan Nawrocki did the same.
Lee, who recruited all but Nawrocki to Clemson, was obviously a key factor.
“Monte was the first phone call I got in the portal,” Hall said. “It was that feeling of knowing I didn’t succeed at Clemson and him still having that belief to call me and say like, ‘Nate, we still think you’re a great player.’ ”
After playing in just a dozen games for the Tigers last year, Hall — a Lexington High grad — has been a gem for South Carolina. The Gamecocks’ leadoff hitter has more hits (13) than anyone on USC not named Ethan Petry (14) and has already tallied 10 RBIs and a pair of home runs.
“It was one of those situations where I really had to put my emotions to the side and, you know, figure out what was best for me,” Hall said.
Nawrocki, who grew up in New York and wasn’t thrust into the rivalry until enrolling at Clemson, always had the goal of playing SEC baseball. But it never felt attainable. He figured his path would begin at a northern school and lead to the SEC. Then he committed to Clemson, and a solid year for the Tigers opened the SEC door.
So he left all his Clemson gear back in New York and became a Gamecock, knowing that the day would come where he’d have to return to Doug Kingsmore Stadium and face the music.
“(There is) probably going to be a good bit of boos,” Nawrocki said. “I’ll probably tune all that out but you know, I’ll have a lot of emotions.”
South Carolina vs. Clemson baseball
- Friday: at Clemson, 7 p.m. (ACC Network Extra)
- Saturday: vs. Clemson at Greenville, 1:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Sunday: vs. Clemson, 5 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
