Paul Mainieri couldn't help but think of a former SEC superstar when he first met Ethan Petry
When Paul Mainieri knew he would be the next head coach at South Carolina, his first phone call was to Ethan Petry.
Almost immediately, Mainieri, who had been coaching college baseball for nearly 40 years, was blown away by Petry’s positive attitude on the phone.
“He was all in,” Mainieri said after the conclusion of fall practice. “Everybody was telling me, ‘Oh, Petry might transfer.’ … I don’t think the kid ever really considered it. I was flattered by that, quite frankly.”
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Petry, the team’s top returning hitter from a season ago, was set on staying South Carolina from the time Mainieri’s hiring became official. Since that first phone call, the two began to develop a “great relationship” that proved to be important in building the rest of the 2025 roster.
“He would give me a rundown on other players, not backstabbing or anything like that, just giving me a rundown on everybody in a very positive way,” Mainieri said. “You can tell he just really, genuinely wants to see the Gamecocks be great and get back to Omaha.”
At the time, Mainieri still hadn’t seen Petry as a player. Of course, that has since changed. He watched him play some in the Cape Cod League and then in fall practice in the last few months.
But in truth, he didn’t need to see much to know just how good he was. He already coached a player from his time at LSU who he felt was just like Petry.
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“After talking to him two or three times, I told him, I said, ‘You know, Ethan, I haven’t seen you as a player yet, but you sure do remind me an awful lot of Dylan Crews,'” Mainieri said.
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Crews, currently the top overall prospect in the MLB, came to college as a young freshman for what would be Mainieri’s final season at LSU in 2021. Right out of the gate, he earned his spot as the Tigers’ starting right fielder and went on to become one of the top players in the game. He rounded out his three seasons by winning the Golden Spikes Award in 2023.
Just on their talents alone, there’s an intriguing comparison between Crews and Petry. Throughout their college careers, they were and have been two of the better players in the SEC. But besides that, Mainieri sees them more so as players who put the team before themselves.
“Don’t get me wrong, Dylan was very confident kid, but he didn’t go around telling everybody. I mean, he let everybody else talk about him. He was very humble and team oriented. I love the kid because of that, and I see a lot of those same qualities in Ethan,” Mainieri said.
“When you interview Ethan after a game, if he hit two home runs and drove in six runs, he’s gonna probably want to talk to you about the pitcher and what a great job he did, or how good of team defense we played that day. That’s the way Dylan Crews was, and I think that’s the way Ethan Petry is.”
