Paul Mainieri out as South Carolina's baseball coach after just 1 1/2 seasons
COLUMBIA, S. C. (AP) — Paul Mainieri is out as South Carolina’s baseball coach midway through his second season after he couldn’t approach the level of success he had produced at LSU.
Mainieri, 68, who won a College World Series with LSU in 2009, had been away from the game for three years before South Carolina lured him out of retirement. The Gamecocks went 28-29 last year in Mainieri’s debut season. They’re 12-11 so far this year.
South Carolina lost 22-6 to Arkansas on Friday for its sixth consecutive defeat. The loss dropped the Gamecocks to 0-4 in Southeastern Conference play. “(Athletic director) Jeremiah Donati and I have agreed that the baseball program will be better served with new leadership,” Mainieri said Saturday in a statement released by the university.
“I take full responsibility for the win/loss record of the baseball program over the 80 games I have served as head coach. When (former athletic director) Ray Tanner invited me to come out of three years of retirement to coach again, my goal was to work with young people again and restore the South Carolina program to greatness with a return to Omaha. My staff and I have worked diligently in an attempt to accomplish that goal.
Unfortunately, that goal has not materialized as quickly as I would have liked and will take more time than I had anticipated and that is time that I just don’t have at my age. ” Donati said he and Mainieri had a conversation Saturday and agreed this move would be in the best interest of the program. Mainieri said: “I did not get the job done at a level that I expected, or the university deserves.