HOOVER, Ala. -- Why would it be any different in the 57th game?
South Carolina again couldn't hit, couldn't pitch effectively and chalked up another two errors in a season-ending 11-3 loss to Florida in the SEC Tournament on May 20, ending the worst season in program history. Coach Paul Mainieri, recalled from retirement to break the Gamecocks through the ceiling that's existed since 2013 and return the program to glory, instead will be the skipper that made dubious history.
Never before had the Gamecocks lost more than 22 SEC games in a season. They lost 24 this year. Never before had the Gamecocks lost more than 28 games in a season in over 130 years of baseball. They lost 29 this year.
Mainieri has spent the past month saying there was a reason he was hired (i.e., last year's NCAA Tournament team was deemed not good enough for the program's standard, which is why predecessor Mark Kingston was fired). He's also been saying that he and his staff are hard at work to build the team for next year.
He stands to get that chance, as rumblings about his future at USC have ceased, but the question remains how much more of a team he'll have to build around. The Gamecocks will lose a large group of seniors, and it would not be surprising to see many more players hit the transfer portal.
It has been a miserable season, on and off the field.
The Gamecocks knew they had to win the SEC Tournament to reach the postseason, which would have required bucking their own sad history in Hoover (although Mainieri was certainly a whiz there during his LSU days) and beating one of the hottest teams in the nation to start. The Gators, continuing their rise despite a 1-11 SEC beginning and several key injuries, looked to be in trouble when they loaded the bases with Gamecocks in the first inning with no outs.
But Jase Woita grounded into a double play. It scored a run, but that was all. USC avoided a Florida score in the bottom of the frame despite Beau Hollins dropping a fly ball, but the Gators wouldn't stay quiet for long.
Bobby Boser cracked a three-run homer in the second after USC starter Brandon Stone walked the ninth hitter. Another homer and two doubles followed in the third, with still nobody warming in the USC bullpen.
Florida continued to pour it on in the middle innings, and USC kept to its system of being aggressive and swinging at pitches early in the count despite needing baserunners. By the time USC strung together some hits and runs in the eighth inning, it was too late, especially when the maligned bullpen still had to pitch.
The Gators scored four runs in the eighth. It was the 16th time in 57 games USC has allowed 10-plus runs.
Mainieri was asked about what went wrong and offered the same answers. He's been saying for the past month that his team isn't talented enough, after also saying he wasn't prepared for the size, strength and velocity from the current SEC, as opposed to the league he left in 2021.
No comment answered the question of how all this can possibly switch that drastically next year, to make the program what it was for 40 years before the last 10.