South Carolina baseball is back. 5 things to watch on Opening Day
College baseball fans, rejoice. The road back to “The Greatest Show on Dirt” begins this weekend.
But before South Carolina baseball can think about a path to Omaha, it first must take the road back to SEC relevance following a 28-29 (6-24 SEC) record in 2025. It starts with an Opening Day doubleheader against Northern Kentucky on Friday at Founders Park. Game 1 is set for 1 p.m.
The Gamecocks are led by second-year coach Paul Mainieri, and the 43-year veteran is no stranger to a single-season turnaround. After going 29-26-1 and missing the NCAA Tournament in his first season with LSU in 2007, the Tigers went 49-19-1 and made the College World Series finals the very next year. By 2009, the Tigers were national champions.
“I wish I could promise you that’s what’s going to happen here, but obviously a lot of things have to work out and go well,” Mainieri said. “All I can tell you is we’re going to take it one game at a time. We’re going to go out there and play our hearts out every single day. I think we have a very good squad.”
Here are five things to keep an eye on as USC gets its 2026 season underway:
New faces
USC wiped its roster clean after a disappointing 2025 season. For 2026, Mainieri and staff brought in 27 newcomers, including 24 transfer and JUCO signees. The transfer class was named No. 4 in the country by 64Analytics.
It’s no surprise that with a high number of returners, many are expected to crack the Opening Day lineup for the first time in a Gamecock uniform.
“I know we’ve got a lot of new players, but it’s amazing when you put that Gamecocks uniform on, how excited they get about being here,” Mainieri said. “There’s something to be said about some newness.”
Starting with the outfielders: Wofford transfer Tyler Bak has long been tabbed by Mainieri as USC’s everyday centerfielder. He could be joined by Florence-Darlington Tech transfer Patrick Evans in right field.
Logan Sutter will lead the way among newcomers in the infield. He was named to the NCBWA All-American fourth team and is expected to start at second base. Sutter hasn’t performed amazingly as a hitter since arriving in Columbia, but his two years of .349 hitting at Purdue basically works as a grandfather clause, which makes him the early-season starter.
“I’m going to give Sutter the first opportunity to prove that he should be an everyday guy here,” Mainieri said. “The guy has hit everywhere he’s been. He just hasn’t hit in Columbia in the fall or in the preseason, and I’m still waiting for it to happen.”
As for the pitching, USC Upstate transfer Amp Phillips is set to be the Gamecocks’ Saturday starter. Mainieri said USC will rely on a trio of transfer arms — Alex Valentin (Texas State), Josh Gunther (Wake Forest) and Josh Gregoire (Louisiana-Monroe) — out of the bullpen this weekend.
Key returners
It won’t be all strangers in Gamecock uniforms this weekend. A handful of returners are primed to play big roles this season.
KJ Scobey, who played third base as a freshman last year, will be USC’s everyday shortstop this season. Fifth-year senior Talmadge LeCroy opted for one more year with the Gamecocks and will get the nod once again to be USC’s starting catcher. Sophomore Beau Hollins will once again be USC’s starting first baseman.
Mainieri also said redshirt freshman Riley Goodman will be the Opening Day starting pitcher. Junior returner Brandon Stone will start on Sundays to begin the year.
Injury bug
Opening Day is a relief for USC in more ways than just a clean record. It also means there’s no more time for the Gamecocks to sustain even more preseason injuries.
It’s been a rough stretch of luck health-wise for USC. Just a few pitches into his scheduled scrimmage start Jan. 22, projected Friday starting pitcher Jake McCoy tore his UCL and had to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. USC will also be without Alex Philpott and Cullen Horowicz this weekend after the two faced elbow injuries in preseason.
Philpott and Horowicz are being re-evaluated Monday by team doctors. If all goes well, they will begin throwing again on Monday as well.
USC will also sit Will Craddock this weekend due to an abdominal strain, and Aaron Jamison will miss at least the first game with the flu. Dawson Harmon also had the flu earlier this week, and he’ll be a game-time decision Friday.
It’s not all bad news: Hollins will start despite missing time this spring with a shoulder injury. Mainieri said he wasn’t expecting to start Hollins this weekend, but he came back in better shape than expected.
“It was like he hadn’t missed any time. He just picked it right up and smoked a few balls,” Mainieri said. “If you would’ve told me a week ago, I would’ve told you there’s no way Beau was going to be in the starting lineup on Opening Day. But he’s ready to go.”
Projected Opening Day lineup
Here’s the projected Opening Day lineup Mainieri listed to the media Thursday afternoon, not in batting order:
- Catcher: Talmadge LeCroy
- First base: Beau Hollins
- Second base: Logan Sutter
- Shortstop: KJ Scobey
- Third base: Dawson Harman (game-time decision)
- Right field: Patrick Evans OR Luke Yuhasz
- Center field: Tyler Bak
- Left field: Ethan Lizama
- Designated Hitter: TBD
Mainieri said Evans, Yuhasz and Jamison could all get time in right field this weekend. He also said there are a handful of candidates for the DH spot.
Pitching plans
Goodman will start on Friday. Mainieri said his elite “stuff,” including a high-90s fastball, made it the obvious choice after McCoy and Philpott went down with injury.
“The only thing he lacks is experience,” Mainieri said of Goodman. “If Philpott and Jake were available, Riley probably wouldn’t have started on the weekend, but probably would have started on Tuesday, and I would have been able to bring him along slowly, and eventually he would have worked his way into the rotation.”
Goodman will be followed by Phillips and Stone on the mound as starters. Mainieri said he’d like to see Gunther finish the game out of the bullpen himself Friday after Goodman pitches about five innings. If Gunther can’t do it, Valentin will get the ball next, and so on.
“I feel very appreciative that the staff is going to give me the opportunity, and not thinking about it too much yet, just kind of letting all the preparation hopefully work,” Goodman said. “I was pretty excited. I was in that mix of starting guys, and so when I got the call, it was a pretty good moment.”
Mainieri said his starting rotation and bullpen hierarchy could change around as pitchers get healthy and he and his staff get a feel for what they have. He said this weekend will likely feature more bullpen appearances than usual as they assess the pitching staff.
“I hope all of them pitch great, and it’s a tough decision for me going forward,” Mainieri said.
South Carolina baseball vs. Northern Kentucky series schedule
- Friday, Feb. 13: vs. Northern Kentucky (Game 1), 1 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Friday, Feb. 13: vs. Northern Kentucky (Game 2), 45 minutes after Game 1 (SEC Network Plus)
- Saturday, Feb. 14: vs. Northern Kentucky, 2 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 4:23 PM.