Former LSU head baseball coach Paul Mainieri is being targeted by South Carolina as the search for the program’s new head coach continues, Baseball America’s Teddy Cahill first reported.
“Multiple sources on Monday told Baseball America that South Carolina is targeting Paul Mainieri as its next head coach. As of yet, there is no confirmation that a deal is in place,” Cahill wrote.
Mainieri coached at LSU from 2007 to 2021, a 15-year stretch that including a National Championship in 2009 and five College World Series appearances.
The Tigers won 31 team championships with Mainieri at the helm, a list that also includes nine NCAA Regional Championships, five NCAA Super Regional Championships, four Southeastern Conference Championships and six Southeastern Conference tournament titles. In total, LSU won a title in 11 of Mainieri’s 14 full seasons in Baton Rouge.
Mainieri, who has been out of coaching since the end of the 2021 season, saw his name appear as a candidate for openings at both Notre Dame and Miami over the past two offseasons. Both programs had ties to Mainieri after he served as the head coach in South Bend from 1995-2006, while his father, Demie Mainieri, was a legendary junior college coach at Miami Dade Community College.
Mainieri has a 1,505-777-8 (.659) record in 39 seasons of collegiate coaching at St. Thomas University (1984-88), Air Force (1989-94), Notre Dame (1995-2006) and LSU (2007-21). He completed his career No. 1 on the all-time wins list for active NCAA coaches. Mainieri is No. 7 in all-time NCAA Division I Baseball wins, and he is one of only five Division I coaches in NCAA history to have won over 1,500 games and a national championship.
He finished his career with a total of 46 team championships – 31 at LSU and 15 at Notre Dame. As head coach at Notre Dame from 1995-2006, Mainieri directed the Irish to an NCAA Super Regional title and an NCAA Regional championship, eight regular-season conference championships and five league tournament titles.
Mainieri recorded a 641-285-3 (.692) mark at LSU, and he has the third-highest winning percentage in SEC history, trailing only former LSU coach Skip Bertman, who was 870-330-3 (.724) from 1984-2001, and former South Carolina coach Ray Tanner, who posted a 738-316 (.700) mark from 1997-2012.
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