Disastrous South Carolina baseball season finally ends. What next for USC?
Mercifully, South Carolina’s baseball season ended on Tuesday.
USC’s 11-3 loss to Florida in the first round of the SEC Tournament wrapped up what was, statistically, one of the worst seasons in the history of Gamecock baseball.
South Carolina (28-29, 6-24 SEC) lost more games than ever before. It lost more SEC contests than in any other year. It recorded the highest team ERA in program history (6.41), edging out the previous high of 6.20 set in 1997.
And, there’s something fascinating in there being a correlation between the 1997 and 2025 seasons. As this was the first season at USC for Paul Mainieri, 1997 was Ray Tanner’s first season in Columbia. Both teams finished with losing records in the SEC. Both missed the postseason. Both featured pitching staffs that allowed a billion runs.
Yet, Tanner’s squad from almost three decades ago had a way to win baseball games. That team could hit, finishing the season with an absurd .341 batting average — a mark that still stands as a school record.
Mainieri’s 2025 team lacks a safety net. There is no backup plan. No, If we struggle on the mound, at least we’ve got this.
The Gamecocks entered the SEC Tournament with a .259 conference batting average (10th in the SEC) along with 30 home runs and 119 RBIs — both of which would be worst in the conference if not for the SEC’s doormat, Missouri.
In every facet, South Carolina regressed this year. Mark Kingston was fired in 2024, not because he put USC in the gutter but because he couldn’t bring them back to the Tanner years, couldn’t get them back to Omaha.
The Gamecocks, if you remember, were competing to host a regional late into last season. Instead, it traveled to NC State for a regional and lost. It wrapped up the year with 37 wins, a team ERA just over 5.05 and a .274 team batting average.
That team was competitive. This South Carolina team has been outmatched in every SEC game, which is not to say the Gamecocks are down and out at first pitch. But they have been almost incapable of capitalizing on opportunities. It began in the Clemson series, when the Gamecocks hit .131 with runners in scoring position in what became a Tigers’ sweep.
It continued throughout the entire season.
In the second game of South Carolina’s early-May series against Florida, the Gamecocks brought the tying run to the plate with no outs in the bottom of the seventh. USC ended the inning without another hit. And Florida responded by embarrassing the Gamecocks, scoring 16 runs in the final two innings.
A year that began honoring Tanner’s accomplishments as a head coach — 738 wins, six College World Series, two national championships — ends with more bemoaning about the man he’s tabbed as replacements.
There was Chad Holbrook (200-106), Mark Kingston (217-105) and then Mainieri, who Tanner hired last May despite the fact Mainieri had been retired for three years.
Yes, he was the active wins leader among DI coaches. Yes, he had plenty of SEC experience, guiding LSU in a decade-and-a-half run that included five trips to Omaha and the 2009 national title. And, yes, he was 66 years old (now 67) and had little experience navigating an ecosystem of NIL and unlimited transfers.
Is that the reason South Carolina has struggled so mightily this season? It’s hard to know. But it does induce natural skepticism whether Mainieri can turn the Gamecocks around.
That implies Mainieri will return in 2026 — a notion that is backed up by On3 Sports’ Pete Nakos, who reported this week that Mainieri “is expected to get a second season in Columbia.”
Now, it should be noted: It was Tanner, not current South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati, who hired Mainieri. Still, to move on from Mainieri — plus hitting coach Monte Lee and pitching coach Terry Rooney would be expensive, with their cumulative buyouts over $7 million.
To Mainieri, there is precedent behind his optimism. On numerous occasions, including a Monday radio appearance with 107.5 The Game, he points to his first season at LSU in 2007. The Mainieri era in Baton Rouge began with a 29-26 season, was followed up by a trip to the College World Series and a national title in 2009.
“I can’t promise that’s gonna be the exact outcome here,” Mainieri said on 107.5, “but I know we’re gonna get better and next year will be a lot better than this year.”
He continued: “My goal, simply, is to restore this program to the level we all expect it to be. But it takes time sometimes.”
It’s not clear if Mainieri has much time to work with. Per Perfect Game, South Carolina’s 2025 recruiting class (seven commits) ranks 99th in the country, a few spots below the likes of Lehigh and Stetson.
That indicates, to no surprise, the Gamecocks are going to be massive players in the transfer portal market — especially in their search for pitching. The problem? Every other team in America is after pitching, too. Which means the Gamecocks are going to have to win portal battles against other SEC schools, which may have more NIL money to offer, or find gems.
Underscoring how tough a rebuild in 2025 is, too: On top of off that, Mainieri is going to have to re-recruit his entire roster. Star slugger Ethan Petry is likely off to the MLB draft, but the Gamecocks need to hold onto their solid young pieces — guys like third baseman KJ Scobey and first baseman Beau Hollins.
If Mainieri can pull off this rebuild, it will be one of the top accomplishments in his coaching career. If he can’t, his last stand will be a sour mark on a hall of fame career.
This story was originally published May 20, 2025 at 8:36 PM.
