Mainieri's high expectations for defense have come with encouraging results so far

Paul Mainieri has been persistent about it from the moment he arrived at South Carolina. If you want to play for him, you better be able to play good defense. It’s a prerequisite.

If you’re not meeting the standard that’s been set, Mainieri will make changes, even during the middle of a game. When starting second baseman Nolan Nawrocki made an error in Friday’s 5-2 win over Milwaukee, he was replaced by Jordan Carrion at the start of the next inning. Going into the next game, Nawrocki didn’t play at all as Carrion got the start and went 2-for-3 at the plate.

“It’s one thing to make an error, it’s another thing when you’re not getting in front of the ball or moving your feet to display a strong desire to make a play,” Mainieri said on Sunday. “(Nawrocki) knows what my expectations are. That might’ve had something to do with him not playing yesterday quite frankly.”

Nawrocki returned to the lineup on Sunday and went 2-for-4 with a solo homer and two RBI. It was a great day for him at the plate, but he also didn’t commit an error and looked better defensively in Mainieri’s opinion.

“He was on the balls of his feet and he was moving,” he said. “He didn’t have a lot of chances but you could see he was very passionate about playing defense today.”

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It may seem like Mainieri is being tough, but again, defense is a part of what it takes to play under him at South Carolina. His desire to be better defensively is evident through the on-field results. After making two errors on Friday, the Gamecocks didn’t make another in the final two games against Milwaukee this weekend.

“I have incredibly high expectations for defense because I have incredibly high expectations for pitching, and you can’t expect your team to pitch well unless you play good defense behind them,” Mainieri said. “… It’s kind of been a Hallmark of most of the teams that I’ve coached throughout my career. It’s something that I think is an important aspect of the game.”

Through eight games, South Carolina has made five errors in the field. Last year, the Gamecocks doubled that total with 10 errors through their first eight games. 2024 ended up being a season where they made the second-most errors in the SEC. But now this year, the defense has played five games of clean baseball without any mistakes.

“Coach came here and he wanted to make an emphasis on being really good defensively. We take pride in that every single day when we’re out there taking ground balls,” Carrion said. “Trying to be the best defensive team in the country was an emphasis for him that we wanted to do. I feel like we’ve been doing that at a high level.”

So far, Mainieri has pushed the right buttons to get the most out of his defense. Most notably, he decided to move Talmadge LeCroy from the infield to catcher and replace him with KJ Scobey as the starting third baseman.

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It’s easily been the biggest change with the most payoff since third base was a glaring hole last season. Scobey has been a vacuum at the hot corner as he’s tied for the team lead in assists and owns a 1.000 fielding percentage without an error to his name.

“It’s a big confidence boost for the guys on the mound knowing that they smoke a ball on the ground or hit one in the gap,” pitcher Matthew Becker said. “I mean, you got guys running it down, making plays behind you. It’s the biggest confidence boost.”

It may be a small sample size, but improved defense is already making a big difference for South Carolina. As the season goes on, Mainieri knows how critical this facet of the game will be in winning and losing.

“Who wins championships without playing good defense? It just has to happen,” he said. “It’s not at the expense of offense. This is a sport where your everyday players, your position players, they’re offensive players and defensive players. But they have to take as much pride in their defense as they do in their offense.”

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