As the baseball and softball seasons ramp up, both programs are facing some of the highest expectations in their respective histories.
After baseball head coach Paul Mainieri and softball head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard were both hired by the school prior to last offseason, their respective programs are entering pivotal second seasons at the University of South Carolina.
During their debut seasons with their South Carolina programs, Mainieri and Chastain Woodard produced results on opposite sides of the success spectrum.
South Carolina baseball is coming off one of the worst seasons in program history. The Gamecocks’ 6-24 record in the SEC is the fewest conference wins that a South Carolina baseball team has recorded since the program joined the SEC in 1992.
The ladies are coming off one of the greatest seasons in program history for South Carolina softball. In 2025, its trip to the NCAA Super Regionals was just the third time the Gamecocks have advanced that far in the postseason this century.
The coaches themselves pose contrasting careers. The University of South Carolina was Chastain Woodard's first gig at a Power 4 school in her six-year coaching tenure. Mainieri is entering his 40th season as a head coach. He came out of retirement as a proven manager that has accumulated six College World Series appearances, six SEC Tournament championships and 1,533 career wins in Division I.
Mainieri had high praise for colleague Chastain Woodard and her program.
“Ashley is a very inspiring person for me to see what she did with the program,” Mainieri said. “I’m sure the pressure is not going to get to her, and it's not going to get to her players because she’s an outstanding leader, and she’s going to prepare her team the same way I am going to prepare my team.”
The baseball and softball programs have arrived at similarly high expectations, each shaped by unique circumstances. Newcomer Chastain Woodard has a chance to cement South Carolina softball as a legitimate program, while veteran Mainieri has the chance to rewrite his South Carolina legacy.
Mainieri and the baseball team will look to get things back on track in order to revive the winning culture that South Carolina baseball once endured. Conversely, pressure has built on the softball team with hopes that Chastain Woodard will sustain success for her alma mater.
Softball looks to build off past success
The new era of Gamecock softball under Chastain Woodard looks to keep things heading in the right direction this season after reaching the NCAA Super Regionals for the first time since 2018. The teams’ 44 wins last year is the most since that same 2018 season. She discussed the importance of building off of last year’s success at media day.
“The 2025 team and the season was definitely a year of legacy,” Chastain Woodard said. “And we’re working really hard every day to continue to build on what we did last year.”
Chastain Woodard joined the program after spending five seasons as UNC Charlotte’s head coach. Her 44-17 record in her debut year with South Carolina was the most successful season of her six-year head coaching career.
The second-year Gamecock coach talked about the satisfaction from the 2025 season and the importance of implementing belief going forward in order to generate a winning culture.
“Success is not guaranteed. You have to go earn it every day,” Chastain Woodard said. “So everything that we instilled in last year's team, we’ve done the best to instill in this year's team.”
The Gamecocks retained nine players from the 2025 roster, seven of whom were typical starters: senior infielder Arianna Rodi, senior pitcher Jori Heard, junior infielder Karley Shelton, senior catcher Lexi Winters, redshirt senior infielder Natalie Heath, junior pitcher Nealy Lamb and redshirt senior outfielder Quincee Lilio.
Rodi, who transferred to South Carolina from UNC Charlotte last season, talked about the unity and culture within the softball program.
“We like to say that the culture is more about the people and less about the words and the writing on the wall,” Rodi said. “So, if we bring in the right group of people, then everything's going to pan out and take care of itself … We’re pushing for something even more special this year.”
The softball program has brought in 10 new players this offseason, consisting of four freshman and six transfers. Notably, sophomore infielder Tate Davis and junior pitcher Emma Friedel highlight the newcomers. Last season at Kennesaw State, Friedel tossed nine complete games in her 127 innings of work.
The impact that the coaching change and transfer portal made for South Carolina’s program was evident last year, as the squad opened its season with a perfect 20-0 record. The 20 consecutive wins to begin the season were the first time that had been achieved since the 1976 season.
South Carolina won a handful of impressive series' last year against No. 3 LSU Tigers, No. 12 Texas Tech and a series sweep against No. 8 Duke. South Carolina even turned heads in its series loss to No. 2 Oklahoma, when it lost all three games by a singular run against the then-defending national champions.
“I think holistically, we learned what it felt like to really believe that our program is just as good as anyone in the country,” Chastain Woodard said. “So I think you saw that on display at the Super Regional against a historic program.”
Last season, the Gamecocks fell short in the NCAA Super Regional series after dropping two consecutive games to the UCLA Bruins.
After experiencing so much success in 2025, Winters talked about how the athletes will go about handling the pressure that comes with having high expectations.
“We talk a lot about staying neutral in situations. I think that's kind of helped us perceive what’s happening,” Winters said. “So understanding how to prepare for it now, so when it does happen, we’re not almost shell-shocked by it.”
With all the success that came in 2025, the expectation for competing at such a high level had built in an extra layer of pressure.
Chastain Woodard said the team has embraced the pressure that comes after recording a successful year and has had internal conversations about how to handle those pressures.
“The pressure is what you make it. The expectations are high for sure, and we want to have a lot of success,” Chastain Woodard said. “We would rather it be this way than how it was previously of lower pressure and lower expectations.”
Baseball hopes to get back to winning ways
Over his four decades of coaching, Paul Mainieri is no stranger to success. Coaching at St. Thomas University, Air Force, Notre Dame, LSU and now South Carolina, he is a leader among current college managers in Division I career wins with 1,533.
South Carolina started the 2025 season with nine straight wins, but the first sign of trouble was against in-state rival Clemson, which was ranked No. 13 during the series.
The Gamecocks were swept in all three games, marking the second sweep in a row for the Tigers in the series.
South Carolina was able to get back on track and picked up a few more wins before conference play, but following a close loss against then-No. 12 Oklahoma in extra innings, the team would go on to finish with a 12-24 record after the series.
In SEC rankings, South Carolina found itself at the bottom of almost every team statistic out of the 16 teams. The Gamecocks were 13th overall in batting average, 15th in ERA and 10th in fielding percentage.
“There’s a lot that goes into coaching. I feel very, very confident that we’re going to be a lot better this year, but we have to prove ourselves," Mainieri said. "What happened last year is not acceptable here at the University of South Carolina. I know what the standards are. I know what the fans expect, and if I was a fan of the South Carolina baseball program, I would expect an awful lot as well.”
Last season with the Gamecocks marked his worst winning percentage (.491) since 1990 at Air Force (.433). Now entering his 41st year in coaching, Mainieri said this is his most anticipated season yet.
In this day and age of college athletics, roster turnover and transfer portal additions are new factors that programs must face following seasons of underperformance and high expectations.
“I feel like we recruited a really outstanding ball club,” Mainieri said. “Then of course, you know, on the heels of a very disappointing season from last year, we want to get back out there on the field and make our South Carolina Gamecock fans proud.”
The SEC is the most dominant conference in the country, winning the last six College World Series titles in Omaha, Nebraska. In the 2025 MLB Draft, the SEC had 107 players drafted which was the most out of any conference. This type of talent in the SEC forces any team that wants to compete to have talent that can make an immediate impact.
Following the exit meetings between last year’s players and coaching staff, only 10 players returned.
Key figures who have been on the roster for multiple years, such as fifth-year catcher Talmadge LeCroy and junior left-handed pitcher Jake McCoy, stayed loyal to the program where they began their careers.
LeCroy has spent the last five seasons at South Carolina and has played multiple roles during his time as a Gamecock. In past seasons, LeCroy has spent a majority of his time at third base and shortstop, but he made the move back to catcher in 2025 before injury.
It was announced on Jan. 28 that McCoy would miss the entire 2026 season after suffering a ulnar collateral ligament tear in his arm, just weeks before his highly anticipated junior season. This is now the second straight year Mainieri has lost one of his projected starting pitchers to injury, with pitcher Eli Jerzembeck going down just before the 2025 season.
During the offseason, the staff brought in 27 new players both from the transfer portal and incoming freshmen. Some of the top names recruited were junior pitcher Alex Philpott from Florida, junior catcher Reese Moore from Iowa, and fifth year infielder Logan Sutter from Purdue.
"I really, really like this team so far," McCoy said. "I think we're going to be really good. I think the coaches did a great job bringing in guys from the portal, and yeah, I'm really confident in the guys."