Gamecocks complete midweek slate with win over Winthrop. Next up: No. 1 LSU

Gamecocks complete midweek slate with win over Winthrop. Next up: No. 1 LSU By Jordan Kaye Updated May 13, 2025 10:06 PM South Carolina head coach Paul Mainieri Sam Wolfe Special To The State This was supposed to week of anticipation, of reunion. The week that South Carolina head coach Paul Mainieri finally faced off against No. 1 LSU (40-12, 17-10 SEC), the school where he elevated himself into one of the best college baseball coaches of all time. Before he stepped down after the 2021 season because of health issues, Mainieri became the active leader in D1 wins, took the Tigers to five College World Series and won the 2009 national championship. And, well, it all feels like a million years ago. Since Maineri retired, his successor at LSU, Jay Johnson, led the Tigers to another title in 2023. Now he has has them ranked No. 1 going into the final week of the regular season. Meanwhile, the team that brought Mainieri out of retirement last summer, South Carolina, has dug itself into the college baseball abyss, where apathy and criticism rule the day. After a 6-5 win over Winthrop on Tuesday, secured via a 3-RBI double from freshman Beau Hollins in the eighth inning, South Carolina (27-26, 5-22 SEC) will finish its regular season against LSU this week. The Gamecocks are in jeopardy of setting the school record for losses in a season (29) and most SEC losses in a year (23). It has been a merciless season. The Gamecocks have already dropped five games by a double-digit margin, including a 22-3 loss to Florida in early May and a 24-2 defeat at Auburn last week. Each series seems to muck up the season even more. It loses by 19 to Florida, fans think the year can’t get even worse … and then South Carolina falls by 22 to Auburn. There’s no reprieve — except in midweek games. Despite the historical struggles, the Gamecocks are now 22-0 in games against Quad 2, 3 and 4 opponents. In other words: South Carolina hasn’t lost to bad teams. “I’m proud of that, actually,” Mainieri said. “You look across the country, not many teams do that. I think the only midweek game we lost was to North Carolina. It’s hard. College baseball is hard.” And still, barring Missouri (16-35, 3-24 SEC) sweeping Mississippi State, South Carolina will be the No. 15 seed in the SEC Tournament. It will need to win the whole thing to make the NCAA Tournament and, well, that is unlikely. Which means South Carolina’s season will end next week in Hoover, at which time the conversations will fully shift to next season. For his part, Mainieri — in the first-year of a five-year contract worth $1.3 million annually — has been adamant that he will return next season. “I’m coaching South Carolina. Nobody has told me anything different or implied anything different,” Mainieri said on May 6. “If there’s going to be a change, it’s news to me. I’ll tell you that. I didn’t come here just to be here for one year.” In any case, South Carolina will need to seriously address its pitching staff. Whether that requires replacing pitching coach Terry Rooney or overhauling its personnel, or both, is still to be determined. But there needs to be change. Heading into the final regular-season series of the season, the Gamecocks currently hold a 6.28 ERA. The school record for highest ERA in a season is 6.20, set in 1997. There are many questions to answer. First, the No. 1 team in the nation will come to Founders Park.