Jack's Mailbag Ep. 40: Answering your latest South Carolina baseball questions

Things haven’t gotten any better for South Carolina, especially not after a weekend in which it was outscored 39-8 in a three-game series. The postseason is all but out of the question now.

As the Gamecocks head into another weekend series, this time traveling to face No. 8 Auburn, it’s time to answer questions from you, the fans, in my weekly baseball Q&A series, Jack’s Mailbag. This week, we’ll be discussing what changes need to happen after the season and much more.

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 the questions for this week.

will110: Is there any hope for the future or should we just shut the program down?

There’s always hope, even if it’s not looking too bright right now. It’s just been a bad season, and you hope it doesn’t linger into next year. The way you instill hope again is by putting a winning product on the field, which will lead to fans coming back to Founders Park. That’s why this summer will be so important to hit on any portal pickups. But no, don’t expect the program to be shutting down anytime soon.

Fleet50: Now that Coach PM says he is coming back, do you think he will make any staff changes or stick with what he’s got?

I think you almost have to consider making some staff changes after this season. Here’s some stats for you: In SEC play, South Carolina is second to last in home runs, slugging and runs batted in. Only Missouri is worse. The Gamecocks have struck out 218 times and walked 78. It’s not much better for the pitching. South Carolina owns the second-worst ERA in the SEC (8.45) with 184 strikeouts and 127 walks. It has also given up 54 homers, the second most in the conference.

All this to say, Monte Lee or Terry Rooney’s jobs should be safe when you see these numbers. In addition to being the pitching coach, Rooney is the recruiting coordinator, so there’s an extra layer to figuring out what to do. He’s also close with Paul Mainieri, dating back to their time together at Notre Dame in the mid-2000s. But the results on the field haven’t been good at all.

Lee is beloved amongst the players, who pretty much all campaigned for him to be the head coach after last season. But the offense hasn’t been where it needs to be. There’s been a clear regression. How much of that has to do with Mainieri’s philosophy of walking less and being more aggressive? South Carolina struck out 375 times and walked 172 under Lee in 2024. It also had far more home runs and RBI. So something is up there. Change will need to come in some way, even if that means moving on from Lee and Rooney. Or just an overall change to the offensive philosophy could be good.

Hampton Rhodes: How many grand slams have we given up this year? What’s the school/NCAA record?

If my math is correct, South Carolina has given up seven grand slams this year. One at Arkansas, four at Texas A&M, two vs. Florida. The NCAA record for most given up in a single season is 12, which has been tied twice. Once by Oklahoma State in 1996 and Tennessee in 2024.

Hampton Rhodes: What is the future eligibility of Woita, Mashore and Kaufer? Also what about LeCroy?

Jase Woita is listed as a junior on South Carolina’s roster. But he spent the last two seasons at Kansas City Kansas Community College and redshirted as a freshman in 2022. So, with the whole eligibility discussion with players who spent time in JUCO, it becomes a bit unclear how much eligibility Woita has left. At the very least, he has another year.

Dalton Mashore is out of eligibility after this season since he’s a senior. He spent the last three seasons at St. Mary’s. Max Kaufer will have one more year of eligibility left since he’s a junior and was at Texas A&M for two years and one at South Carolina so far.

Talmadge LeCroy has been banged up for the entire season to the point where he hasn’t played since March 25. I wrote a story about the most recent injury update from Mainieri a few weeks ago, and he’s going to be out for the year. He could come back since he does qualify for a medical redshirt. But he’s been at South Carolina for four years. He could come back, he could transfer, or he could decide to begin the next phase of his life. We’ll see what happens.

Maxcy: How many days until football season?

115 days until South Carolina opens the 2025 season in Atlanta against Virginia Tech on Sunday, Aug. 31.

bloody spur: Jack ain’t you tired of the Baseball and Basketball Teams sucking? The Beach Volleyball Coach got shown the Door……..Why not these two Coaches?

I mean, it’s always better when you’re getting to cover winning teams. But that just hasn’t been the case for men’s basketball and baseball, one after the other this year. But hopefully football season will be a bit better. I love my job, though, regardless of the in-game results.

I understand the fan base not being happy with Lamont Paris or Mainieri after the seasons they’ve had. But it’s hard to move either of them when they’re both signed through 2029 and are being paid a lot of money. Moritz Moritz’s (the beach volleyball coach) contract ends on June 30, so it’s a lot easier to move on from him than Paris or Mainieri. And to be fair, both coaches should be given at least another year to see if they can get things back on track.

1Mcreekcock: Jack, obviously, the baseball program is in a mess. Do you think this is just a lack of player talent or are there issues with the staff as well?

There are a lot of problems, but I think you could say both of those fall in line with what’s gone wrong this year.

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Arget: Can we start using torpedo bats?

I think they need to start using those ridiculous-looking wiffle ball bats with the massive barrel.

MC21: What’s the status on the game 2 Yankee pins? Gone for good? C’mon Jack, you gotta ask the tough questions!

You’re so right. These are the tough questions that seemingly no one, including me, has asked yet. But here’s my question. What happened to the camo caps that have sometimes been worn with the Yankee pins on Sundays to honor the military? They didn’t wear them this past Sunday but still honored a military member in the third inning. It is a good question, though.

Gamecock14: Will there be massive coaching changes? Will there be high player turnover?

Don’t expect to see any coaching changes at the top with Mainieri. Assistants? It’s always possible. Though there hasn’t been any word yet on that being the case. The same goes for the players, but I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if this roster looks vastly different in 2026.

the night owl: Was your previous suggestion that we’d hit bottom premature or is this just a long and drawn out bottom? (This question is more than a little tongue in cheek).

I did say that South Carolina had hit rock bottom after the Texas A&M series, which I still stand by. But maybe more so, the season in general has been rock bottom. I think that’s a bit more accurate, especially if the Gamecocks finish with their worst SEC record in program history.

yo-mans: Do you think that some of our pitching problems could be from the pitches that is called by the coach? It just seems that the pitchers lack confidence!

I would say so. The pitchers don’t get to call their own pitches at the college level, as those duties usually go to the pitching coach. I think that’s been an issue, along with the untimely mound visits and pitching management. It does look to me that the pitchers seem to lack some confidence when they’re on the mound as well.

WK: What’s the update on Eddie Copper? Last we heard it sounded like a miscommunication between coaches and player, but it was unclear if he’s mentally not ready to return or if he’s just shutting it down to preserve a year of eligibility for his next school.

I don’t think we’re going to see Copper pitch at all this season. There are two weeks left to go in the season unless South Carolina can make the postseason by winning the SEC Tournament. If he hasn’t pitched yet, I wouldn’t expect him to now. But he has been with the team and in the dugout. Just hasn’t pitched in a game this year.

WK: What does John Hendry’s role look like at this point? He was coaching first base, but that’s become an honor for our injured elder statesmen players like Eskew and LeCroy. When he got here, he was branded as an expert recruiter, but all I’ve heard is about how Terry Rooney was leading (and rumored to be underperforming) on the recruiting trail.

So he coaches first base, and when he’s not out there, it’s because he’s on the road recruiting. From my understanding, he’s very involved with recruitment. Rooney is the recruiting coordinator. But Lee and Hendry are also a part of that process.

West Ashley Gamecock: Did anyone think before the season our first-year softball coach would greatly outperform our much-ballyhooed first-year baseball coach?

I didn’t think that would be the case this season. I didn’t expect either to be amazing, but I thought both would at least make it to a Regional. Softball has been so good to the point where they have exceeded all expectations anyone could’ve had for them. It doesn’t matter what they do the rest of the way. Likely hosting postseason games at home in year one of Ashley Chastain Woodard’s tenure is impressive.

Personally, I think softball had a tougher mountain to climb after last season. Yes, they made it to a Regional under Beverly Smith in 2024, but this was a program at the bottom of the SEC for the first few years of this decade. While baseball didn’t have a good season last year, it’s not like this was a program needing to go into a full rebuild. They made it to a Regional, so the next step would be to get back there and do more, especially with a head coach with a good track record. But that won’t be the case unless they can win the SEC Tournament in a few weeks.

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