South Carolina Gamecocks Losing 'Team Leader' to Transfer Portal: Report

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Steph Dwilson | Last updated Jun 6, 2025 3:51 PM ET

The South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team had a rough season, and now they're losing a star player.

Shortsop Henry Kaczmar is entering the transfer portal with a no contact tag, sources told Jake Mckeever of CBC.

Mckeever wrote about the news on X, "One of the smoothest Shortstops I was able to see this year, Henry was the team leader in SEC average at .333."

As of the time of this article's publication, Kaczmar had not made a post about the news on his social media accounts.

The State also confirmed the report, explaining that "do not contact" frequently means the player already has a new team in mind.

Kaczmar started in 53 games and had a.315 batting average, which was the third best on the entire team. He had six home runs, 28 RBIs, and a .394 on-base percentage.

So far, 15 players are transferring out of South Carolina and four have committed, The State reported.

The Gamecocks had a tough season, finishing 28-29 and 6-24 in the SEC. Despite the rough season, South Carolina is retaining head coach Paul Mainieri.

Mainieri left retirement to join the program this season.

Mainieri told SI about their lackluster season, "Our +schedule in particular was really difficult this year, and it exposed our limitations, where we have them."

He also said lack of money was another reason for poor recruiting from the transfer portal after he arrived.

"When I first got here last summer, we lost a lot of recruiting battles because other schools were giving a more, shall I say, appealing package to kids," Mainieri told SI. "That's the reality of the world we live in now. The schools that have a lot of money and are willing to give it to the players are getting the best players."

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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