Everything Paul Mainieri said after season-ending loss in SEC Tournament

Following an 11-3 loss to Florida in the first round of the SEC Tournament, South Carolina head coach Paul Mainieri spoke to the media after the game. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Well, I thought we had a tough game today. Obviously, Florida’s got outstanding players. We got off to a start there bases, nobody out in the first inning, and we could get one run out of it. They turn around and hit a three-run home run, and after that, a couple more home runs.

“We had opportunities just couldn’t capitalize on them. So in the end, it’s kind of the story of our season, really. The other team hit home runs. We didn’t hit any, or haven’t hit many. We left a lot of runners on base. Ultimately, the better team won.”

Paul, you talked last summer about part of the attraction of the job being that the program wasn’t in the doldrums. You felt like you were close. Now that the program is in the doldrums after this year, does it still feel like the same kind of energy for you going into next year?

“Yeah, it was a tough year. Not used to these kinds of seasons, quite frankly. Got off to a rough start when we lost what we thought was going to be our Friday night starter before the season began. Eli Jerzembeck got hurt in preseason, and then shortly after that, Nolan Nawrocki, who we thought would be our second baseman and hit a bunch of home runs. He was really never himself, and now he’s had knee surgery. And then you look at Talmadge LeCroy, who broke his thumb in the second inning of the first game of the year. Never really swung the bat the way that he could. And then when he hurt his hip, he was out for the year. And of course, last month, you know, without Petry.

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“So I’m not making excuses, it’s just reality. We didn’t have the depth to overcome some of those things. I’m an optimist by nature. And I thought that we would have what it took to compete in this league. Obviously, we didn’t with the way the season went. I’m disappointed, but not discouraged. We’re working really hard in recruiting. We’ve already lined up some really, really good players for next year through the junior college ranks. We have a few guys in the freshman class that the previous staff recruited that we’re real excited about. And then we’re anxious for the transfer portal to open on June 2, and we’re obviously going to need a lot of players there. We’ve already recruited a really outstanding high school class for 2026, so I think the future is bright for our program. And like I said, I’m disappointed about this year, but I’m not discouraged about the future. We’re just going to keep rolling up our sleeves and working hard at it, and hopefully we’re going to be a lot better next year.”

The pitching staff had the worst ERA in program history this year. Do you still believe in Terry Rooney as a pitching coach, or do you consider restructuring your coaching staff in any way?

“Terry Rooney is here to stay. He’s an outstanding coach, a great recruiter, great pitching coach. You do the best you can. We’ll get better. We need to. We had some young kids, I think that showed flashes of being pretty good for us, and we’re going to get some kids in recruiting, and we’ve got a couple freshmen coming in that I think are going to help us.

“Terry Rooney is here to stay. He’s not going anywhere. He’s an outstanding coach, and he’ll prove that as we go forward. And there won’t be any other changes with our staff.”

How do you feel about what you guys want to accomplish with the recruiting class for this upcoming fall with certain guys as far as pitching?

“Like I said, we’re going to go out and recruit the best kids that we can to get some quality arms and build upon the guys that we have in our program that we think have a good future. And I think we’ll be a lot better next year.”

Paul, after the season you have had here, do you feel you have the full support of the administration to be able to turn this thing around?

“Yes. Most simply yes.”

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