13 South Carolina baseball players in transfer portal, including some starters
At least 13 South Carolina baseball players are hitting the transfer portal as the school continues to search for its next head coach.
Infielders Beau Hollins and KJ Scobey as well as pitchers Riley Goodman, Zach Russell and Hudson Lee are all entering the transfer portal, a school spokesperson confirmed to The State. Monday was the first day that players could officially enter the portal. Jamie Bradford was the first to report the news.
The State also confirmed that infielder Will Craddock, pitcher Logan Prisco and Josh Gregoire also intend to transfer. Gamecock247’s John Whittle was the first to report those players are leaving.
Others posted on social media their intentions to leave the program: Josh Gunther, Alex Valentin, Patrick Dudley, Gavin Braland and Dawson Harman.
Scobey started every game for USC the past two years and hit .254 with 17 home runs and 63 RBI in 113 games. Hollins, the son of former Gamecock and major-leaguer Dave Hollins, started 67 games in his two seasons and hit .308 with six homers and 24 RBIs this season for the Gamecocks.
Craddock, a freshman from TL Hanna High, started 51 games this year as a freshman and hit 10 home runs with 29 RBIs. Harman, a High Point transfer, started 40 games for South Carolina this season and hit .227 with five home runs and 21 RBIs.
South Carolina is coming off its worst baseball season in program history with a 22-35 record. Paul Mainieri and the school parted ways on March 21. The former LSU coach was 40-40 in his year and a half as head coach.
D1 Baseball’s Kendall Rogers reported on Friday that Coastal Carolina’s Kevin Schnall and West Virginia’s Steve Sabins were viewed as the top two candidates for the Gamecocks’ job. Coastal was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. West Virginia plays Kentucky on Monday in a regional final.
Schnall was asked about the opening after the loss to Florida State on Sunday.
“I’ve got a five-year contract at Coastal. I’m the head baseball coach at Coastal Carolina. Can’t stress it enough,” Schnall said. “In the last 25 years, we got the fifth best winning percentage in the entire country, the sixth most wins in the entire country. The past decade, we’ve got the most wins in the state of South Carolina. We’ve been to Omaha twice. We won a national championship, we were in the national championship finals last year. Only four teams in the last 12 years have advanced to the College World Series finals multiple times: Vanderbilt, Florida, LSU, Coastal Carolina. As long as we continue to be successful, people are going to continue to call Coastal Carolina to gauge interest in us, in their jobs. I don’t blame them. I would too.”
