The South Carolina Gamecocks made an in-season coaching change on March 21, just days into the team’s SEC schedule. Paul Mainieri, who was in his second season as head coach of the school after coming out of retirement, is done with the Gamecocks.

AD Jeremiah Donati put out a statement on the 21st, stating that he met with Mainieri and told the longtime coach that it would be best for the two sides to move on.

Mainieri noted in that same statement that USC “supported me and the baseball program throughout my tenure.” “In short, I did not get the job done at a level that I expected, or the university deserves.”

In that statement, Mainieri stated that he will go back into retirement on a permanent basis.

The former LSU coach was relieved after what has been a very difficult stretch of late for the Gamecocks. South Carolina lost 22-6 at home to Arkansas on March 20, a seven-inning run-rule loss at home. USC, as of the move, was 0-4 in SEC play, as the Gamecocks lost three straight in Gainesville to the Florida Gators during the in-conference opening weekend.

That series against Florida was very jarring when taking into account that the Gamecocks scored only three runs in that series. All of those runs came on March 15, a 13-3 run-rule loss to the Gators.

From a performance point of view, things have been all over the place for South Carolina.

Riley Goodman, the redshirt freshman who started Opening Day, walked 14 over his first 14.2 IP this season and received his first work out of the bullpen this past week.

Offensively, junior Dawson Harman (.211 AVG, 21 K over 18 GP) and sophomore Beau Hollins (.161 AVG) have lagged. Hollins was one of the Gamecocks’ most productive hitters last year.

As of now, the rest of the coaching staff remains intact. That includes associate head coach and former Clemson head coach Monte Lee.

Check out more of our college baseball coverage.