Everything Paul Mainieri said in his media day press conference

After a disappointing first year under head coach Paul Mainieri, South Carolina baseball looks to have a bounce-back season from their 28-29 and historically low 6-24 conference finish a year ago.

Mainieri met with the media on Thursday to preview the 2026 season. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening Statement

“I’m excited, obviously, about the new season. Without really over exaggerating, it’s probably the most anticipated season in my 41 years as a college coach. The combination of being in my second year and now I have a much greater idea of what to expect. I feel like we recruited a really outstanding ball club. On the heels of a very disappointing season from last year, we want to get back out there on the field and make our South Carolina Gamecock fans proud and get this program back to where it’s supposed to be. We’ve been working really hard, had some great practices. We have had to navigate the weather a little bit, but I feel like we’re in great shape and we’ll deal with whatever conditions there are. Three weeks from tomorrow is Opening Day. Ashley (Chastain Woodard) starts in two weeks so I’m hoping the weather clears earlier for her.”

How are the catchers doing, and how are they going to be for the season?

“They’re both doing great. The ones that were hurt, you’re speaking of Gavin Braland and Reese Moore. They’ve been going through full workouts, and our catching core is back to four guys. There’s always a silver lining in everything that happens, even the disappointments. And even those guys being hurt this fall were a dissapointment but it gave Jake Randolph a lot of opportunities that maybe he wouldn’t have had, and I thought Jake really improved during the fall and become a very capable option for us. He didn’t catch much last year at Presbyterian. He DHed or played the outfield, but once you get him behind the plate, he’s really a good receiver, blocks the ball well, throws decent, is a pretty good hitter.

So the competition for innings behind the plate is going to be pretty intense with those four guys. Of course, Talmadge LeCroy is the number one guy but I think all three of those other guys are are getting there, working hard, and John Hendry is working with the catchers this year, and so they’re getting a lot more attention than they’ve had in the past. And I think it’s really already beginning to show that it was a prudent thing to do.”

What are the main positions you’re keeping an eye on, as far as position battles go?

“Well, I figured that question was going to come pretty early. And, you know, this is, this is the same Jack. You know, in the fall you have 27 days or, excuse me, 35 days in the new rule this year for practice. Well, this year, the Renew rule for the spring was that we’re able to begin practicing on January 12, which was the first day back in school. So we have 27 days over the 33 days from that point when the way from opening days. So it’s almost like happening in another entire fall session. So we’re going to play 14 inter-squad scrimmages, and a lot more will be decided over the course of that time. But there are some guys that I hate to use words like lock, but, anything can happen, and there are injuries and so forth.

But when you look at our everyday lineup, I don’t think there’s any question that KJ Scobey will be our shortstop. He played terrific all fall, and I’ve had, I’ve been blessed through my coaching career to have had some really tremendous shortstops. We had a streak at one point where I had six consecutive short-ups that ended up making it to the major leagues. So KJ Scobey is as good defensively as any of them, and he’s a lot stronger now, and he’s swinging the bat a little more consistently, and he’s the middle of order type hitter as well.

“So I think he could become one of the better players in our conference. Beau Hollins certainly will be our everyday first baseman. Talmadge (LeCroy), as I mentioned before, will be our number one catcher, but obviously, you have to have more than one guy to be able to play that particular position. Also think that Tyler Bak has has emerged as our everyday center fielder, not that we don’t have other good options, move Patrick Evans to the outfield, because I feel fairly convinced that Dawson Harman is going to be our primary third baseman, but I think Patrick Evans is probably going to be one of our nine best players, so we’re trying to find a place to fit him, and he could certainly run down, run him down in center field. I think Aaron Jamison has gotten a lot better.

“So it’s not a matter of, you know, there’s a huge gap between Bak and the other guys, but I just think Tyler Bak is one of those players. It’s, he’s going to kind of be the glue to our team. He’s very, very good defensively, and he’s a table setter. You know, you just can’t have nine home run hitters in your lineup, and then you live and die by the home run. You’ve got to have somebody who can set the table, and he can run. He’s a left-handed hitter. He’s got a good eye at the plate, uses the whole field, he can bunt, steal a bag, and play great defense. So I think Bak got a pretty good chance of being in there every day coming out of the fall practice. I thought Luke Yuhasz kind of emerged. I also thought Ethan Petry finished the fall very strongly, kind of like what I mentioned about Dawson Harman, but I don’t think any of those guys absolutely had the job locked up. The competition is still good. Erik Parker did some really good things this fall.”

Did this offseason seem longer than usual because we couldn’t wait to get back on the field, or does it seem shorter because I’m so busy trying to get back on the field and have a better season?

“I don’t know if I have a good answer for that. This is my 41st year as a head coach in college, and it just seems like it’s the perpetual season, because as soon as one season ends, you’re into recruiting, you’re molding the roster for the next year. You’re going through fall practice, you’re evaluating the players that you have and seeing how the pieces of the puzzle will fit together. Now I’ve always looked at putting a team together as kind of like an artist getting a big pile of clay, and you have to mold it, and you make it into something beautiful. And that doesn’t happen overnight. So you need the time to prepare and evaluate your team and coach your team in a way so that they play the game the way you want them to play it. Sometimes you say there’s not enough time to get ready, and then at other times, you’re just so anxious to get started. So there’s always something to do. People, fans come to the game and watch the games out there, and they kind of just think it happens. But as I’m sure Ashley could tell you, you’re working 365 days a year, basically. So let’s just put it this way, these three weeks won’t go fast enough for me at this point, I’m really looking forward to Feb. 13.”

With Will Craddock, what impresses you about him, and does his versatility in the infield, being able to play just literally about anywhere, help him in getting a chance to potentially be a guy that factors in?

“I’ve always had the courage to play freshmen. I could care less about, you know, what year a guy is in. Certainly, experience is a nice factor. But if one player is more talented than another, and he just happens to be younger, you know, I play that, that youngster, I’ll have the courage to do that. We don’t have many freshmen this year. We only have three on our roster, and one of them is out for the year, Brandon Cromer. One of them is a pitcher. Patrick Dudley and Will Craddock are really the only freshman that is is a position players, but I love Will Craddock. Now I’m going to tell you, I think he’s got a very, very bright future. When you watch batting practice, he hits him as far as anybody does. He’s, you know, obviously, got the physical tools to do it, and he’s versatile, you know, he’s played a lot of first base, but we know Beau is probably going to be the first baseman during the fall. I played him a lot at second base, but he was a shortstop in high school, and he’s played a lot of shortstop in our intersquad scrimmages, too.

“He’s also a very poised young man, and I just think he has a great attitude. He’s always got a smile on his face. Everybody loves Will. I’m not sure when the opportunity is going to come for him. Just like when we opened the season last year, we didn’t know when the opportunity was going to come for Beau Hollins. It took 15 games. I can’t really look at a crystal ball and say for sure, this is when it’s going to happen for him, but he just needs to keep getting better. And these next 14 scrimmages, I think, will say a lot about where he is in terms of being ready towards the end of the fall. He had a little trouble with change of pace pitches, you know, off-speed pitches, breaking balls, you know, just recognizing them early enough that he doesn’t swing at the bad ones. You throw him a fastball, he might hit it at 10 miles, but he just that. That’s the one bit of experience that I think he needs, which is just pitch recognition. But as far as defensively, could play him at several positions, and I don’t think we’ll be afraid when he gets his opportunity. I just don’t know when it exactly is going to come.”

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You brought in, I believe, 13 new pitchers this offseason, and obviously returning some key pieces there as well. Can you just talk about what your staff is shaping up to look like this season, and who those guys will be make the biggest impact?

“The biggest the biggest reason for my optimism going into the year is because of our pitching staff, and we’ve got some really good arms out there, and I think Terry (Rooney) is doing a tremendous job in developing them. You know, obviously, when you started talking about our staff, you started with Jake McCoy. Jake, I think Jake has a real chance to take a big step forward this year, but I also think he needs to take a big step forward. He’s got a golden arm. I mean, he can he’s left hand. He throws up to 97 miles an hour. He’s got a pretty good slider, but the thing that will allow him, the two things that will allow him to take a big step forward, is a, b has better command of his fastball, and he’s also developed a change-up. We forced him to throw his change-up a lot this fall, and he’s developed a lot of confidence in it, and it’s a pretty good change-up. When you’re a starting pitcher, you have to have three pitches, unless your name is Kevin Gausman, who can do it on a fastball and a splitter, but that’s a very rare occasion that a pitcher could pitch an extended period of time and through the lineup two or three times on two pitches. So Jake knew he needed to develop that change-up, and he’s really worked at it, and I, you know, I believe his command is going to be better. Just that’s one thing that experience does for you, the more times you get on the mound. So hopefully he’s going to be the leader of our staff.

If someone were to ask me who’s going to be your opening weekend rotation, I honestly could not give you an answer right now. I still feel like we have five other candidates that are really battling for the other two spots, besides Jake, and I’m speaking specifically of Amp Phillips, who’s a transfer from USC Upstate, and I’ve already spoken quite a bit about him in previous press conferences. I love Amp. I think he’s a real bulldog on the mound. He pitched really well for USC Upstate last year. I think his record was like seven and three, and his E.R.A. was low. But what really jumped out to me was how well he pitched against Clemson in the regional last year. I didn’t even know he was going to go in the transfer portal. I’m sitting in the chair watching him pitch against Clemson. Not that I was rooting against Clemson. I can assure you I wasn’t. What I really enjoyed watching was just the way this kid was competing out there. He. Was just, you know, you just love to see competitors, and so I think Amp’s got a real chance.

Riley Goodman is a kid whom Mark Kingston and his staff had recruited. He unfortunately blew out his elbow as a senior in high school, so he missed all of last year, but we still wanted him to come to school because we had heard good things about him. We rehabbed them the whole year. Cory Barton, our trainer, did a phenomenal job. And then we just kind of, you know, even though we had a season that we’re focusing on, Riley’s rehab was a big part of last year. He finally got to pitch a little bit in the summer, and this fall, he was absolutely dominant in our inner squad scrimmages. He pitched one inning over at Charleston. I was actually happy to see him have the bases get loaded on him in the first inning, because he had dominated so much in the scrimmage games; he hardly ever had to pitch out of a jam. And this time he did. And of course, he did, striking a couple of batters out. And I think Riley, the future is really bright for him. Now. He has never pitched. Other than that, one inning in the fall, an inning in college baseball. So we’ll kind of see how we play it with him.

Alex Philpott, a kid from the transfer from the University of Florida, and he’s really what they look like. He’s six-six. He’s got long limbs. He throws the ball extremely hard. He really has four or five pitches that he can command. And for some reason, he just never really kind of got over the hump with the Gators. Hopefully, a change of scenery for him is going to do, do really some really good things. He had a great fall practice as well.

Bradley Hodges is a kid who transferred from Virginia. The greatest thing about him is he throws left-handed, and he’s got a, you know, your typical crafty left-hander. He’s not overpowering with his fastball, but really knows how to pitch. I’m still not sure what his role will be, and then the other guy is, is Josh Gunther from Wake Forest, who transferred from Wake Forest. Josh was a really important bullpen piece for Wake Forest last year, and he may ultimately end up being the same for us, but it won’t be because he’s not capable of being a starting pitcher, the competition is just so intense for those weekend starting jobs right now, and you can only have three, so whoever goes to the bullpen is just going to strengthen our bullpen immensely. And Gunther is another guy who has a really good repertoire of pitches. He’s not a one-pitch guy, but he’s not overpowering either, although he struck out well more than a batter’s inning last year at Wake Forest.

So those are the guys, I think, that are competing there. But as I mentioned, whoever is not in the weekend rotation goes to the bullpen. It’s going to help our bullpen immensely, but we also have some really good, solid arms in our bullpen from last year’s team. I think Brandon Stone has made a jump forward as well. He’s throwing a little bit harder. His sinker is really his pitch. But he’s also developed a really good cutter that he can his weakness last year was going against left handed batters, and so now that cutter has given him a real chance to get those left handed batters, which I’m excited about, that two guys that were freshmen last year that didn’t pitch that much, but both have really good arms, and I feel like they’re on the verge of doing something, you know, huge step forward of Cooper Parks and Zach Russell. They both throw the ball 96 miles an hour, and Parks in particular, his his fastball is a real heavy fastball with a lot of movement, and I don’t know, I just got a sneaking suspicion that that kid’s on the verge of doing something really outstanding.

Zach Russell was an infielder who we converted back to a pitcher. He pitched and played the infield in high school, but he became a full-time pitcher at some point during the fall, and he’s got a really good arm. His problem was last year that he just would constantly fall behind in the counts, and because he didn’t have a really outstanding breaking ball, even though he’s throwing hard, he’d have to groove it, and they would hit it in this league, you know, you just can’t do that all the time. So as he develops his off-speed pitches and his command becomes more consistent, he’s got a chance to be really good too.

There’s a handful of other guys that I think are, are really one guy that’s it, really impressed me this, you know, since he’s been in school, there’s a kid named Logan Prisco that pitched at Florence-Darlington last year, that helped him get to the Junior College World Series. And I really like Logan. I think he’s another good option for us, left-handed out of the pen. Alex Valentin is another one that’s that I think can do some really good things. He’s left-handed. I’m sure I’m missing somebody, but Parker Marlatt, of course, is Mr. Steady. You know what you’re going to get out of Parker. Think that’s a good rundown on our pitching staff.”

It was really impressive to a lot of people how you guys were able to retain some of the top talent you had from last year’s roster. Can you explain the process of bringing back some of those guys and getting them to buy back in after a difficult season?

“Well, you’re right. Retaining them was very key because there were schools out there that were trying to get them. Do we call that tampering when they’re not in the portal? Yeah, it’s that it’s not a fun part about coaching at this point is when you’re having to try to convince your own kids to stay when they’re not even in the portal. But unfortunately, that type of stuff goes on, but I think it says a lot about the character of the kids that we have. Jake McCoy, KJ Scobey, and some of the others, they love it here. They love the University of South Carolina. They share my vision for the program and what we’re going to do going forward. They, they’re obviously very important parts of the program. I hate to go back and talk about places I’ve been, but everywhere.

Whenever I’ve started a new job, and this is my fifth and final job, but I’ve had to start a new job five times, four previous times, and it’s the same process in that first year. You know, a new coach comes in, and there are different ways of going about things. Kids have to prove themselves all over again. And then, you know, you’re kind of evaluating your talent on the fly, and we all have a fall practice where we get to play 10 games. It’s all intersquad games, except for two outings. And so, you know, things kind of happen throughout the spring, and you see how kids handle success, and you see how they handle adversity when it strikes. You see what their talents are. And so you really get to know them.

And you know, the 10 their return from last year’s team were wonderful young men who work hard, they want to win really badly. They’re great kids, and not that everybody that left the program or finished their careers, you know, like Ethan Petry and Nathan Hall, kids like that were wonderful, wonderful human beings and great ball players. So it’s not just those 10 that that bought in last year, but some, you know, didn’t and and they, you know, when they did, when things didn’t go their way, they kind of showed, you know, some character issues that that didn’t make you really believe that they could, they would be a valuable player coming back. So this is what you do when you have exit meetings at the end of the year: you just have very frank conversations about what that person’s future would be in the program if he were to come back. And one thing that I am is very honest and up front. And you know, they may not agree with my opinions, but I’m going to tell them exactly how I feel. And so some of them, by mutual decision, it was best for them to go to other schools and get a change of scenery. A couple of them, I wanted back, but they decided not to come back. And some of them, it was really just me telling them that there wasn’t going to be room for them on the team.

The following year, we had a roster limit by the new House settlement, and we couldn’t carry a bunch of extra guys, so I didn’t think that they’d have a chance to contribute, so we encouraged them to go somewhere else. So it’s just kind of the process that really all schools go through now, there’s just so much turnover from year to year. I mean, you can look at the top teams in the country last year and how much turnover they had even, you know, so it’s not unique to us, but I’m really happy about the 10 kids that came back from last year’s team, and I love them dearly, and I think they’re going to be integral part of our team going forward.”

We were talking with Ashley about the pressure her team feels to sort of repeat the success they had last season. It’s kind of a different pressure for your team to get back to that level of success. How have you internalized that? And what’s the communication like with your team, given the returning and new players on it?

“There’s a sense of urgency. You know, I’ve had a long career. And fortunately, we’ve had enough success, you know, that I’ve been able to continue coaching. Nobody’s ever asked me or told me to leave, and that’s quite an accomplishment in its own right, in today’s day and age. You know, I don’t intend. For that to happen here, either. So, yeah, you know, we we want to win, and we want to, you know, Ashley is is a very inspiring person for me to see what she did with the program, with the softball and I’m sure the pressure is not going to get to her, and it’s not going to get to her players, because she’s an outstanding leader, and she’s going to prepare her team the same way I’m going to prepare my team. And, you know, I tell my players the same thing I tell myself, you know, I can do is look myself in the mirror. Know that you did the very best that you could. But it’s up to us to recruit the players that if they if we coach them right, and we inspire them and motivate them right, that we should play better than we did last year. And I feel very confident that that’s going to happen.

But we can’t, like every day, say, oh gosh, we got to win this game today, because last year was a bad year. You can’t do it that way. You know, you want them to have fun playing. You want them to enjoy coming to the field every day; you have to coach them hard. I mean, that’s the way I coach, you know, I coach them hard. You know, I have very high expectations of our coaching staff and of our players to do things right all the time. And you know, it’s not criticism. It’s, it’s to, you know, it’s to make them make adjustments. When they do things differently than they need to do them to be successful. And so it’s, it’s building their confidence. It’s building the team concept. It’s selecting the right players. It’s inspiring them each day. There’s a lot that goes into coaching, and I feel very, very confident that we’re going to be better, a lot better this year, but we have to prove ourselves. I mean, you know this? You know what happened last year is not acceptable here at the University of South Carolina. I know what the standards are. I know what the fans expect. And if I were a fan of the South Carolina baseball program, I would expect an awful lot as well, and it’s our job now to win them back and to make them believe that we can have a championship-caliber team. And I have all the confidence in the world that we can do that here. And I think this year is going to be a big step in the right direction.”

Can you talk about how the offense is shaping up and specifically, what step forward you’re hoping to see from KJ and Beau?

“I think KJ and Beau are really going to be key guys, because, you know, I talked earlier today. I don’t care about experience, you know, but that’s not totally true. The experience helps a player become better, and I can tell KJ Scobey, for example, is already a much more confident, you know, player, and it’s not only the result of him playing every game last year for us, but then he went off in the summer, excuse me, he went off in the summer and went through the USA team trials for the final roster that went to Japan. He didn’t make the final 20, but he played great in the trials, and that gave him a lot of confidence that he was among the best players in the country, and he had more than held his own. He almost made that team. I just see the way he carries himself now, and he’s, I think, more dedicated and more committed, because he can see what his potential is for the future in this sport, and he doesn’t like to lose.

And you know, last year he was very frustrated at times with some aspects of our team when we didn’t do well. And you know, this year, I think he feels confident in the players around him that we’re going to be a lot better. So I see him being much better. And I do believe he’s a middle-of-the-order type of hitter, Beau is, is also, you know, I don’t remember exactly how many at-bats. It took about 15 games before he became a starting player, and he hit over 300 he had about, I want to say, five or six home runs, but I think Beau, in order to take it to the next level, has to be more than a five or six home run a year guy, and if he can get, you know, I hate to put a number on him, you know, goal, but into the double digits, then he’s going to be more of a run producer for us, and that makes him a middle of the order hitter. I’ve seen him hit balls a long way, but, you know, he’s got to just be more consistent and do it on a more regular basis. I mean, hit 300 last year. So you know, he’s got the talent to put the bat on the ball. I think no identifying the counts and when he can kind of swing for the fences and not just take a base hit, the opposite field. I think that comes with experience as well. But those two guys are for us. To have a really good offensive team, those two guys have to be great this year.”

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