South Carolina baseball swung for one of the hottest names in the college baseball coaching carousel, and seemingly has succeeded. According to a report from On3, the Gamecocks are set to hire Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall. Pete Nakos of On3 reports that he has formally informed the school that he is leaving for South Carolina, as well.
This comes after a nightmare season for the Gamecocks. South Carolina finished 22-35 (7-23 SEC) before getting bounced by Tennessee in the SEC Tournament to round out the season. The program began the year led by Paul Mainieri, but on March 21, announced it’d be heading in a new direction.
“When Ray Tanner invited me to come out of three years of retirement to coach again, my goal was to work with young people again and restore the South Carolina program to greatness with a return to Omaha,” Mainieri said at the time. “My staff and I have worked diligently in an attempt to accomplish that goal. Unfortunately, that goal has not materialized as quickly as I would have liked and will take more time than I had anticipated and that is time that I just don’t have at my age.”
More From RTI: Utility Man, Local Native Returning To Tennessee Baseball In 2027
Now, he’ll be replaced by Schnall, who had immense success in just two years as the head coach at Coastal Carolina. Replacing legendary coach Gary Gilmore after spending 2001-12 as an assistant coach and 2016-24 as the associate head coach under him, Schnall led the Chanticleers to the 2025 MCWS national championship series before losing to LSU.
This year, Coastal finished 37-23 (21-9 Sun Belt) before getting bounced in the regional round. Along with his MCWS run a year ago, he was also the associate head coach for the 2016 national title year the Chanticleers won. He spent his playing days there, as well, as a catcher from 1995-99, winning Big South Conference Player of the Year.
Now, he takes over a program with national title expectations in the premier college baseball conference. South Carolina has a pair of national championships (2010 and 2011), has finished as the national runner-up four other times, made the MCWS 11 times (most recently 2012) and claims one SEC Tournament title and three regular season titles.
