South Carolina's Paul Mainieri Says He Underestimated the Strength of the SEC

South Carolina head baseball coach Paul Mainieri says he underestimated the strength of the SEC.

The South Carolina Gamecocks have had a bit of struggle this season on the baseball diamond. They are currently 26-20 on the season and ranked second to last in the conference. Head coach Paul Mainieri spoke about the team's struggles this year as he nears the end of his first season with the program.

“I thought we would do better,” Mainieri said on 107.5 The Game on Monday. “I really did.”

South Carolina is 5-16 in conference play and 10 teams from the conference currently rank in the top 25. Mainieri said he was not prepared for the overall strength of the SEC in the sport.

“I had just underestimated the strength of the conference and how much better the conference has gotten in the last couple of years,” he said. “The players are so much bigger and stronger and more experienced, older. We just have not been able to match up in some cases with them.”

Mainieri is in his fifth head coaching stint. He started out at St. Thomas in Florida, coached at Air Force after that, transitioned to Notre Dame and then coached at LSU from 2007-2021.

South Carolina has three conference series remaining this season. They host the Florida Gators this weekend, will face Auburn the next weekend and will close the regular season out against the LSU Tigers.

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