How Paul Mainieri fared in first games with South Carolina

Posted by author February 20, 2025 Sports

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Former LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri is off to a perfect start with his new team.

Mainieroi led South Carolina to a 3-0 record on opening weekend and a win on Tuesday. The Gamecocks took down Sacred Heart in the three-game series and recorded a win at Winthrop.

In its home opener, South Carolina jumped out to a 3-0 lead and scored two runs late after Sacred Heart tied the score in the sixth inning. The Gamecocks put up a one-hit shutout in a 14-0 win on Saturday, then blanked the Pioneers once again with an 8-0 victory on Sunday.

On Tuesday at Winthrop, both teams scored two runs, and the game was tied. In the home half of the fourth inning, Winthrop took a one-run lead, but the rest of the game belonged to the Gamecocks. They scored three unanswered runs between the fifth and sixth frames to seal the win.

Mainieri’s hiring was announced on June 11, 2024. Through his 15 seasons at LSU, he made five College World Series appearances and won six SEC Tournaments and 10 NCAA Regional Championships. He also led the Tigers to the 2009 National Championship and finished as the runner-up in 2017. The team won at least one championship in 11 of Mainieri’s seasons.

Through stops at St. Thomas, Air Force, Notre Dame, and LSU, Mainieri accumulated enough wins to rank him first among active Division I coaches with 1,505. He is a two-time SEC Coach of the Year and four-time National Coach of the Year honoree. Under Mainieri’s watch, LSU players were recognized as First-Team All-Americans 13 times and chosen in the MLB Draft 90 times.