How's baseball recruiting gone for South Carolina? Paul Mainieri says it's 'going great'

The current state of the 2025 season is beyond fixing. Unless South Carolina wins the SEC Tournament, this will be the fifth time in the last 10 years that it has missed the postseason.

It’s been a rough year for a program with a new head coach looking for any sign of hope that things will get better. And they may not improve this deep into the season. That doesn’t mean the future can’t be better, though.

Amid all the rumors of Paul Mainieri’s future at South Carolina being up in the air, the first-year coach has set the record straight: He’s not going anywhere. So much so that he’s already thinking ahead.

While many wonder what the future of the program will look like, Mainieri assured recruiting has been “going great.”

“I can’t tell you who they all are,” he said, “but we’ve had not only great commitments for next year, but the ’26 high school graduating class. We’ve got an unbelievable class we’re putting together.”

Looking ahead to next season, the Gamecocks have six commitments from the Class of 2025. They’ve also been recruiting at the JUCO level for immediate help. The year after that? 11 more on the way, which is part of why Mainieri is excited about that group in particular.

Class of 2025 High School Commitments

• Luke Roupe: RHP, 6-foot-5, 205 pounds (Grace Christian HS — Little River, SC)
• Patrick Dudley: LHP, 6-foot-4, 212 pounds (Atlantic Shores Christian — Virginia Beach, VA)
• Will Craddock: SS, 6-foot-3, 190 pounds (TL Hanna — Anderson, SC)
• Brandon Cromer Jr.: LHP, 6-foot-3, 175 pounds (Lexington — Lexington, SC)
• Noah Franklin: C, 6-foot-1, 210 pounds (TNXL Academy — Charleston, SC)
• Seth Manning: RHP, 6-foot-2, 165 pounds (TL Hanna — Anderson, SC)

Class of 2026 High School Commitments

• Gavin Byrd: SS, 6-foot-2, 195 pounds (Lakeland Christian — Lakeland, FL)
• Alain Gomez-Gudiño: C, 6-foot, 185 pounds (Saguaro — Scottsdale, AZ)
• Brady Stewart: SS, 6-foot-1, 185 pounds (St. Thomas Aquinas — Overland Park, KS)
• Colton Semmelmann: LHP, 6-foot-2, 185 pounds (Brookfield Central — Brookfield, WI)
• Keenan Dolan: RHP, 6-foot-5, 200 pounds (Bishop Manogue Catholic — Reno, NV)
• Walker Cox: RHP, 6-foot-6, 200 pounds (Easley — Easley, SC)
• Aaron Dierks: RHP, 6-foot-3, 210 pounds (West Springfield — Springfield, VA)
• Cameron Jackson: SS, 6-foot-1, 160 pounds (Georgia Premier Academy — Decatur, GA)
• Spencer Krasner: LHP, 6-foot-3, 185 pounds (Chaminade Madonna College Prep — Cooper City, FL)
• Parker McGee: SS, 6-foot-1, 170 pounds (Lancaster — Lancaster, SC)
• Jackson Robinson: LHP, 6-foot-1, 190 pounds (TL Hanna — Anderson, SC)

Class of 2027 High School Commitments

• Griffin McKain: OF, 6-foot-3, 180 pounds (Legion Collegiate Academy — Fort Mill, SC)

Current JUCO Commitments

• Logan Prisco: LHP, 6-foot-4, 225 pounds (Florence-Darlington Technical College — Selden, NY)
• Dawson Harman: 3B, 6-foot-4, 234 pounds (College of Central Florida — Tampa, FL)
• Andrew McLaughlin: RHP, 6-foot-3, 225 pounds (Florida Southwestern State College — Summerville, SC)
• Aaron Jamison: OF, 6-foot, 195 pounds (Fort Scott Community College — Morgantown, WV)
• Caleb Hoover: 1B, 6-foot-3, 215 pounds (Grayson College — Rockwall Heath, TX)
• Patrick Evans: INF, 6-foot-3, 200 pounds (Florence-Darlington Technical College — Lexington, SC)

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Circling back to the speculation about his job status, Mainieri hears about it. Even though he doesn’t pay much attention to the news, he knows what’s being said out there to some extent.

This also goes for recruiting. Mainieri believes other schools try to gain an advantage over South Carolina by using his age as a 67-year-old coach and other factors as a reason not to commit. It hasn’t always worked, though, according to Mainieri.

“We’re beating the top schools in the SEC for those kids, and they’re probably all like, you know what? We didn’t think South Carolina could beat us on these recruits,” he said. “So we’ve got to somehow discredit South Carolina, you know, oh, the coach isn’t going to be there. The coach is going to resign. They’re going to fire him and all this stuff. If there’s going to be a change, it’s news to me, I’ll tell you that. I didn’t come here to just be here for one year.”

Age, longevity, job status are only part of the equation, though. Winning and losing are something else that recruits take notice of when they’re looking for their future school.

The Gamecocks haven’t had a good season, sitting at 26-23 with a 5-19 record in SEC play. All while 10 SEC teams are currently ranked inside the top 25. But that doesn’t include in-state rival Clemson, the ninth-best team in the country.

This alone is an uphill battle that Mainieri knows he faces in recruitment. He’s coaching a team that could potentially finish with its worst-ever SEC record. But his message to recruits is this: “You could choose to go to a school that’s already a top-five team in the country, or you can go to a place where your legacy can be that you were part of the turnaround.”

“How did I recruit the kids to LSU when we were having that rough first year? I sold DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Ranaudo and all these kids on what their role will be in turning this program in the right direction and getting it on track again,” Mainieri said. “Some kids may not be interested, but others would like to challenge and like to create their own legacy. So every kid makes their decision for their own reasons. What motivates one may not motivate the other. So you gotta find the right ones.”

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