Jack's Mailbag Ep. 38: Answering your latest South Carolina baseball questions

The weekend is finally over. But South Carolina’s season-long struggles are still very much real and haven’t shown signs of going away yet.

Fresh off returning from my trip to Texas, it’s a good time to answer questions from you, the fans, in my weekly baseball Q&A series, Jack’s Mailbag. This week, we’ll be discussing the disastrous Texas A&M series and what’s gone wrong this season.

If you would like to have a question featured in the next episode, I’ll create a post on The Insiders Forum at the start of every week, and you can ask your question there. Without further ado, let’s get into all the questions for this week.

FightinRooster: What are the odds PM steps down at the end of the season?

I’m not sure. I think it mainly depends on how the rest of the season goes. I know postseason aspirations are basically out the window at this point, unless the team wins the SEC Tournament next month. But if things continue to get worse, meaning they keep losing and only win, let’s say, five SEC games, then I think there needs to be a serious discussion about what’s next for Mainieri.

It just depends on what he wants to do. Being at almost every game this season (only missed one weekend game and a few midweeks), I don’t see the same happy, go-lucky kind of guy from before the start of the season. It’s clear this season has taken its toll on him. He’s also going to turn 68 years old in August. So I don’t know if he’d step down after one year, but I just wonder if he has the desire to be here for a few more seasons. I don’t think he or anyone saw this season unfolding the way it has.

Maxcy: Assuming no postseason, what is your move once the season is over if you are Donati?

Going back to the first question, the first thing I would do is meet with Mainieri and see where his head is as far as his future goes. Given this is his first year at South Carolina, I can see Donati giving him another year or two to figure things out and develop the roster since he’s a proven winner.

If there’s any part of Donati that feels Mainieri isn’t 100 percent locked in for the future, meaning the rest of his contract, then maybe it’s time to move on. Because this isn’t going to be an overnight fix. It can be with the transfer portal and NIL, but that’s going to be tougher after this season’s results. Keep in mind, this wasn’t Donati’s hire. So if it were me, I’d figure out how to fix what went wrong this year, and if a change at the top needs to be made. I don’t think anything can be ruled out if things don’t improve.

CaughtLookin: Jack, what size uniform do you wear, and what number do you want? Get loose, you’re in the rotation for next weekend.

Oh, trust me, you do not want me in the rotation next weekend. I never threw hard enough when I played baseball. I’ll stick to my spot in the press box and enjoy doing the job that I love!

_jtmathwig: When will SC baseball stop resting on its laurels? This program seems to look into the past way more than focusing on establishing a new present/future.

You’re not wrong for feeling this way. I see it too. The glory days are always talked about as if they happened yesterday. The fact of the matter is that South Carolina hasn’t been to the College World Series in 13 years. The back-to-back titles came in 2010 and 2011. That’s a long time ago.

The fact that the program hasn’t made any trips back to Omaha since then is surprising to me. You would think they would’ve been able to build off that success, especially since they were always competitive even before winning those championships. Don’t forget what came before, but it’s also important not to dwell solely on the past. You’re right about that. Focus on the future.

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Arget: How soon are we going to be looking for a new coach?

You have to remember, Mainieri is under contract through the 2029 season. He’s also going to be making $1.3 million per year. That cannot be moved so easily if South Carolina wants to look for a new coach anytime soon.

However, I do think there comes a point where, like I said before, if the Gamecocks were to only win a few more games in SEC play, I just don’t think you can run it back the same way in 2026. Changes have to be made.

Does that mean Mainieri needs to be gone? Not necessarily. Again, the man has been a winner throughout his career. But this season hasn’t been good. If it keeps getting worse and better coaches are out there, especially younger ones that could be here for the long haul, it’s something to consider. Only time will tell.

Hampton Rhodes: What is the single-season record for hit batters, both team and individual? We have two pitchers with 10, and a team total of 50.

Shoutout to USCBatgirl21 for answering this question on The Insiders Forum before I could get to it. So I’ll post the answer they shared. Good stuff!

Team –
Game – 7 vs Wofford in 2009
Season – 83 in 2024 (62 games)

Individual –
Game – 4 by Kip Bouknight vs Liberty in 2000, George Beam vs WCU in 1972
Season – 20 by Sam Dyson 2010
Freshman – 14 by Forrest Koumas
Career – 44 by Blake Cooper

Cocky Jeff: Where are we on recruiting for next year? Who is committed?

Master and Commander: Is help on the way for next season?

These two questions are relatively the same. So I’m just going to answer them both here in one shot. There’s some help on the way for next season, but keep in mind, it’s not a finished product yet, since I’m sure South Carolina is going to be very active in the transfer portal this summer.

Perfect Game has an up-to-date list of commitments a part of South Carolina’s next recruiting class. If you want to take a full look at that, click here. I’ve spoken to some of those commits in the last few months for stories and whatnot, and they’ve sounded very excited about becoming Gamecocks.

One player whom I think you all should be excited about seeing next season is Dawson Harman. He’s a third baseman currently playing JUCO ball down in Florida. He’s been doing extremely well this season, hitting .374 with 19 homers and 49 RBI. Ready for an even better number? Harman has a 1.345 OPS. Only Ethan Petry has an OPS nearly that high (1.133) amongst South Carolina hitters right now.

Speaking of Petry, he and Harman are good friends as they’re both Florida natives. I spoke with Harman about his connection with Petry as well as his commitment process in a story I wrote back on Opening Day, if you want to check it out.

cocky347: Is the pitching talent on this team as bad as the numbers say, or do we not have the right coaches to get some better results?

The numbers are really bad. There’s no sugarcoating that. As a group, South Carolina owns an 8.22 ERA in SEC play. Just this weekend alone, it allowed 40 runs, 37 earned. The pitching staff struck out 25 batters and put 33 on base via free passes (25 walks, 8 HBPs). They also had nine wild pitches.

While things haven’t been going well, I do think a lot of the pitchers aren’t pitching to their talent level or potential. Some of that has to do with not throwing strikes and getting hit around by top-notch offenses. It happens. There are still a few weeks left for guys to finish out strong, but I thought the pitching would be much better under Terry Rooney’s guidance. It looked like it would be a strength of the team in the early weeks of the season, but that just hasn’t been the case.

To make matters worse, Matt Williams, who was South Carolina’s pitching coach in 2024, is doing extremely well at Coastal Carolina. His pitching staff owns the fifth-best ERA in the country against the No. 22 strength of schedule. It just makes you wonder what could’ve been if he had more than one season to do his job.

mjm831: Will Paul “retire” after this season? The results are beyond unacceptable and he’s clearly not happy. Bring Skylar Meade back.

We’ll see. Again, he’s not getting any younger, and I know he’s under contract for the next few years. But does the thought of being here til the end of the decade sound appealing to him? I’m not sure. That’s why having these conversations after the season ends is going to be important. The results haven’t been good. I don’t think anyone in their right mind expected this team to be in Omaha this year. But with how bad things have gone, missing the postseason is all but a lock. That’s not good enough.

GivEmDaSpurs: What is the mood of the team? Are they playing like they have already lost (with the exception of a few)? Thinking more about the pitching staff.

Do you have a feel for Manieri as to whether he will hang it up or has it sparked a fire in him?

When I was at A&M, I didn’t get a chance to interview any of the players in postgame since Mainieri was the only one made available to talk to after each loss. It would’ve been nice to hear their thoughts and feelings, but when I walked by the dugout on Saturday, they looked stunned by what had just happened.

They’ve played well in some of the games that they’ve lost in SEC play. In the case of Saturday’s game, 12 runs weren’t good enough to win because the pitching imploded. That’s a tough pill to swallow. So I don’t question if they are still playing hard or not. Although it looked like the team didn’t show up at the ballpark when they lost 17-0 on Friday.

As for Mainieri, you would hope a weekend as bad as this would light a fire in him. But shouldn’t that have already happened with as many rough weekends as they’ve had to this point? I’m just not sure how things are going to change when they haven’t proven they can win outside of midweeks and early non-conference series. They just are who they are. I’m not sure what Mainieri will do, though. I could see multiple scenarios playing out. We’ll just have to see where the team goes from here and how they respond with a five-game home stand on deck.

Discuss South Carolina baseball on The Insiders Forum!