By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Paul Mainieri, who won a national championship at LSU, finished runner-up for a second and left most of the LSU team that won the 2023 national title, was let go Saturday as South Carolina’s baseball coach in his second season – just four games into the Southeastern Conference campaign.
Mainieri, 68, also helped former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward hire present LSU coach Jay Johnson to replace him when he retired with back and neck issues after the 2021 season.
Hired by LSU before the 2007 season, which was four years after taking Notre Dame to the College World Series in 2002 for the first time since 1957, Mainieri took LSU to the CWS in Omaha, Nebraska, five times from 2008-17. He won the national championship in his third year in 2009, finished runner-up in 2017, and won as many SEC regular season titles as any other coach over that span with four.
But Mainieri struggled to turn around the struggling Gamecocks’ program. South Carolina had three losing seasons in the SEC from 2019-24 under coach Mark Kingston and never got out of three NCAA Regionals before Mainieri’s arrival prior to the 2025 season.
Mainieri went 28-29 overall in 2025 and 6-24 in the SEC – the Gamecocks’ worst conference record since going 3-15 in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1969. South Carolina, which suffered major injuries to its pitching staff this season, was 12-11 on the year and 0-4 in the SEC after a 22-6 home loss to No. 4 Arkansas Friday night.
It was Mainieri’s third loss in two seasons in which the opponent scored 20 or more runs. There were 22-3 and 24-2 losses to Florida last season and a 17-0 loss at Texas A&M.
“After a conversation this morning with coach Mainieri, we agreed that it would be in the best interest of the program that we part ways at this time,” South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati said in a statement Saturday.
Donati became athletic director on Jan. 2, 2025, replacing athletic director and former two-time national champion (2010, ’11) baseball coach Ray Tanner, who hired Mainieri in June of 2024. Mainieri signed a five-year contract for $6.5 million with a $1.3 million yearly salary.
SOUTH CAROLINA HIRES PAUL MAINIERI
Miami and Notre Dame were interested in hiring Mainieri prior to him taking the South Carolina job.
South Carolina associate head coach Monte Lee took over for Mainieri on an interim basis for the Gamecocks’ game against Arkansas on Saturday afternoon. Lee is the former coach at College of Charleston (2009-15) and at Clemson (2016-22), where he was fired after back-to-back losing seasons in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2021 and ’22 at 16-20 and 13-16.
“Jeremiah Donati and I have agreed that the baseball program will be better served with new leadership,” Mainieri said in a statement. “I take full responsibility for the win-loss record of the baseball program over the 80 games I have served as head coach.”
Mainieri, who played at LSU as a second baseman in 1976, was scheduled to coach in Alex Box Stadium for the first time since the 2021 season when the Tigers reached the Super Regional round at Tennessee. LSU hosts South Carolina on May 1-3 at the Box.
Among the players Mainieri recruited, signed and coached that were still at LSU when the Tigers on the 2023 national championshipl in Johnson’s second year were eight starters or regulars. Among those were center fielder Dylan Crews, the second player picked in the 2023 MLB Draft who won the Golden Spikes Award in ’23 and was a consensus All-American. Other top players were first baseman Tre Morgan, shortstop Jordan Thompson, second baseman Gavin Dugas, designated hitter Cade Beloso, catchers Hayden Travinsky and Alex Milazzo, and pitcher Ty Floyd.
In addition, left fielder Josh Pearson, right fielder Brayden Jobert and pitchers Griffin Herring and Gavin Guidry did not play for Mainieri, but he and former recruiting coordinator Nolan Cain recruited them to the Tigers. Cain, by the way, is considered a candidate for the South Carolina head coaching job. The former LSU pitcher and assistant coach is the associate head coach at Texas now.
A member of the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Mainieri is 1,545-811-8 in his college coaching career – 641-283-3 at LSU (2007-21), 533-213-3 at Notre Dame (1995-2006), 152-158 at Air Force (1989-94) and 179-121-2 at St. Thomas (1983-88) in Miami, where he grew up.
Mainieri’s full statement follows:
“Jeremiah Donati and I have agreed that the baseball program will be better served with new leadership. I take full responsibility for the win/loss record of the baseball program over the 80 games I have served as head coach.
“When Ray Tanner invited me to come out of three years of retirement to coach again, my goal was to work with young people again and restore the South Carolina program to greatness with a return to Omaha. My staff and I have worked diligently in an attempt to accomplish that goal. 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.
“I want to make it clear that Ray Tanner, Jeremiah Donati, President Amiridis, and the university leadership have supported me and the baseball program throughout my tenure. In short, I did not get the job done at a level that I expected, or the university deserves.
“As I go into retirement again (and for the final time), I reflect on how fortunate I have been to do what I Iove most – coaching college baseball and trying to impact young lives – for more than 40 years at five wonderful institutions. St. Thomas University, the United States Air Force Academy, the University of Notre Dame, LSU, and the University of South Carolina, will always hold a special place in my heart. The young men that I have had the honor to coach will always be foremost in my thoughts. It is my hope that their success in life and contributions to society will be my lasting legacy. It is time for me to rejoin my family and be the best husband, father, and grandfather that I can be.“
Be the first to comment