South Carolina baseball nears historic collapse with no end in sight

What is going on in Columbia? It is hard to sugarcoat it: South Carolina baseball is staring down its worst season in over half a century, and it is maddening for Gamecock fans.

After getting swept by Auburn this past weekend, South Carolina sits at 26-26. The are only four games left, against Winthrop and three against LSU. If the Gamecocks do not win another, they'll finish with their worst record since 1996. If they lose out to LSU, a 5-22 conference record would mark the program's lowest conference win total since 1963. Sixty years of history circling the drain.

Whatever is going on in Columbia is certainly not what Gamecock fans signed up for when the program brought in Paul Mainieri. When he took the helm, it was supposed to be a turning point, not a step back in time to the program's darkest days. But the product on the field has been underwhelming, inconsistent, and at times, flat out embarrassing.

But we may not be done with Maineri yet, as he told a local radio show that he wasn't going anywhere. On top of that, Mainieri is locked into a five-year, $1.3 million per season, contract. And the buyout terms won't exactly make it a clean break. If the university pulls the plug on Mainieri early, they're on the hook for the full remainder of the contract.

So, here we are, staring down one of the worst seasons in program history, with no changes on the horizon, and not much hope that things will be different in 2026. And with the fan base growing more and more restless, the frustration is beginning to boil over.

Something has got to give.