South Carolina's Paul Mainieri Opens Up About the Gamecocks' Struggles

South Carolina head baseball coach Paul Mainieri opens up about the Gamecocks' struggles this season.

The South Carolina Gamecocks are getting ready for their final conference series of the regular season against the LSU Tigers this weekend. Regardless of what happens this weekend, many will deem the season a disappointment as Paul Mainieri wraps up his first year as head coach.

Mainieri is no stranger to college baseball; in fact, he has been around the sport for a long time and has been a head coach at multiple stops. He came out of retirement to coach the Gamecocks, and Koki Riley with Nola.com caught up with the veteran ball coach to ask why it hasn't worked out so far.

"The conference is just so tough. You know, it's unforgiving," Mainieri said. "And our schedule in particular was really difficult this year, and it exposed our limitations, where we have them."

The conference has definitely not been forgiving to the Gamecocks this season. They are currently 5-22 and now they are matched up against the top ranked LSU Tigers.

Mainieri in his career has been successful at winning games. He has an overall head coaching record of 1,532-799 dating all the way back to win he coached St. Thomas in 1983. However, since stepping away from the sport, Mainieri might have forgotten some of his old tricks.

"I forgot how hard it is to win college baseball games, I guess," Mainieri said.

Mainieri and his staff brought in what they could from the transfer portal once he got to Columbia, but he said it wasn't easy to win those recruiting battles.

"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 said. "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."

Perhaps Mainieri and his staff can start winning some of the recruiting battles this offseason to get the program back on track, but for now, they will focus on finishing the season in the best possible way they can .