‘Whirlwind’ day leads to Monte Lee leading South Carolina baseball … at last
A year and a half ago, Paul Mainieri sat in his office scoffing at the notion he couldn’t succeed as a college baseball coach in 2025 and beyond. His entire career, Mainieri was quick to point out, he adapted without issue. Scholarship changes, social media, transfer portal … he figured it out.
Only one thing gave him pause. Mainieri wondered whether this era of baseball players would be able to adapt to him. Could he still succeed as an old-school disciplinarian who gave little leeway if, say, a double play wasn’t turned to his liking? Could he still be a demanding perfectionist and hold kids to the standard he demanded of players in the 1990s and 2000s?
“We’re gonna find out,” Mainieri said.
The verdict came down Saturday with a thud. After just 80 games as South Carolina’s head coach, Mainieri’s time with the Gamecocks is over. Neither side seems eager to officially declare whether he quit or was fired — likely for contract buyout reasons — but the Mainieri experiment is over nonetheless.
It will go down as a failure from start to finish, a black eye for former athletic director Ray Tanner (who hired Manieri) and for the 68-year-old coach himself, who admitted Saturday he couldn’t cut it anymore.
“My goal was to work with young people again and restore the South Carolina program to greatness with a return to Omaha,” Mainieri said in a statement. “… Unfortunately, that goal has not materialized as quickly as I would have liked and will take more time than I had anticipated and that is time that I just don’t have at my age.”
Mainieri, who won over 1,500 games and guided LSU to the 2009 national championship, finished his USC tenure with a 40-40 record. The final loss, which likely sparked the change, came on Friday night — a 22-6 embarrassment (in seven innings) against No. 4 Arkansas.
Less than 24 hours later, the Gamecocks and Razorbacks met again. This time, South Carolina (12-12, 0-5 SEC) fell 3-2 in 10 innings, and would have beaten the No. 4 team in the country if not for a throwing error in the ninth inning. Naturally, one homes in on the glaring difference between Friday and Saturday, to the man on the top step of the dugout.
Before Mainieri took the South Carolina job, it seemed like Monte Lee was a shoo-in to lead the Gamecocks. Named the interim coach after Mark Kingston was let go in 2024, Lee didn’t have to actually coach any games, but he did a good job keeping the roster intact and, well, mentioning that as he lobbied for the full-time job.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, South Carolina hired Mainieri. Lee was retained as a hitting coach and — in what felt like a consolation prize for being passed over — received a raise that made him the highest-paid assistant coach in college baseball.
Lee said he arrived at Founders Park on Saturday morning with no inkling of the news about to drop. For a few hours, he prepared for the game as usual: looking over video of Arkansas’ starting pitcher, putting together the pregame batting practice routine. Eventually, Mainieri called the staff into his office and announced he was no longer the Gamecocks’ coach.
“We had a very short amount of time to make the adjustments that we needed to make to get ready for the game,” Lee said. “It was an absolute whirlwind.”
Among the adjustments Lee made as head coach: He changed the offensive signs, tweaked the pregame routines for how USC does infield work and batting practice. Most notably, Lee told catcher Talmadge LeCroy that he was no longer going to call the pitching, choosing to have the assistant coaches call the game from the dugout.
Saturday was bizarre for a million reasons, not the least of which revolves around Lee: He’s finally the head coach at South Carolina … and gets nearly the entire SEC season to audition for the full-time job. Though early reports are mentioning Coastal Carolina’s Kevin Schnall as the projected front-runner for the Gamecocks’ opening, the job — for now — belongs to Lee, something he seems to relish.
After both head coaches exchanged lineup cards, a fan offered a message to Lee on the way back to the dugout.
“Go get ‘em, Monte!” the fan bellowed. “It’s a new season.”
A smile flashed on Lee’s face. This stuff happens all the time with interim coaches. Folks rally around change, especially when that change includes a well-liked assistant coaching taking over the program. Athletic directors are often cautious about putting too much stock into an interim’s early returns because, well, it’s not uncommon for teams to rally around a new voice and play inspired.
Given the tonal difference between Mainieri and Lee, the change was bound to ignite a spark.
“The first thing that I told them is, ‘Look guys, we can do one of two things: We can either give up or give it everything we’ve got,’” Lee said. “I’m gonna encourage these guys. I’m gonna build their confidence. We’re gonna be as positive as we can.”
But it should be noted that South Carolina’s players looked far more engaged and enthusiastic Saturday than they have for the last few weeks (save for the Clemson game at Founders Park). And it was little things: Guys leaning over the railing of the dugout watching the game, tipping their caps in unison when Tyler Bak robbed a home run, looking like they were actually having fun.
And, certainly, some of that is because of Lee, who loves South Carolina baseball as much as anyone. He grew up in the Midlands, going to Gamecock football and baseball games as a kid, eventually landing a dream job when Tanner hired him as an assistant in 2002. Heck, as he spoke Saturday of building the toughness of his baseball team, the famous Tanner-ism “win anyway” kept finding its way into the answer.
“It was a tough day, but also one that I’m very grateful (for),” Lee said. “Just got to make the most of it right now for these kids.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2026 at 7:30 AM.
