South Carolina baseball's Kevin Schnall era begins with helicopter, painful memory

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COLUMBIA — Sixteen years ago South Carolina baseball broke Coastal Carolina's hearts in the Myrtle Beach Super Regional.

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Kevin Schnall, then a Coastal Carolina assistant, walked out of the stadium on June 13, 2010, after the loss and saw a sea of garnet and black.

"The place was packed, over 5,000 Gamecocks fans and I vividly remember saying to myself, 'Wow, what would it be like to be a part of that?'" Schnall said. "Today, sitting behind this microphone as your new head coach, I'm about to find out."

South Carolina hired Schnall as its next baseball coach on a five-year contract worth $1.3 million annually.

Schnall was introduced to fans June 12 at Founders Park, arriving in a helicopter before walking to a podium while the crowd chanted "GAME-COCKS" back and forth. Football coach Shane Beamer was among those who gave Schnall a warm welcome.

Kevin Schnall era at South Carolina begins

Schnall, 49, was an assistant at Coastal Carolina from 2001-12, spent two seasons as an assistant at Central Florida, then returned to Coastal as an associate head coach from 2016-24.

He was promoted to head coach beginning with the 2025 season, and the Chanticleers went 56–13 and finished as runner-up to LSU in the College World Series. The 56 wins were a program record, and the team won the Sun Belt Conference regular-season and tournament championships. Schnall was named the 2025 National Coach of the Year by Baseball America.

Coastal Carolina went 37-23 this season and was eliminated by Florida State in the NCAA Tournament regional and his overall record as a head coach so far is 93-36.

Schnall said to leave a place that had been his home for 25 years, it would have to be the perfect opportunity.

"Carolina embodies everything great about college baseball," Schnall said. "Championship tradition, unbelievable fan base and an athletic administration and university that is committed to excellence. As a coach, always wanted to measure ourselves against the best. The SEC is the major leagues of college baseball."

The transfer portal opened June 1 and 22 players from the 2026 South Carolina roster entered before Schnall was hired.

Schnall has added nine players to the Gamecocks 2027 roster via the portal, seven of whom are following him from Coastal Carolina. The portal will close June 30.

Schnall wants to get the Gamecocks back to Omaha for the first time since 2012 but has immediate tasks at hand.

"Number one is to finalize the staff," Schnall said. "(Next) is to retain and acquire elite players and we're moving in the right direction there."

Why South Carolina hired Kevin Schnall

South Carolina announced on March 21 that Paul Mainieri would not finish his second season with the program. Mainieri, 68, had come out of retirement to take the job went on to lose a program-record 24 SEC games in 2025.

Monte Lee replaced Mainieri as interim coach but athletic director Jeremiah Donati fired Lee and two assistants on May 21.

South Carolina has gone 65-54 overall, 19-41 in SEC play over the last two seasons and hasn't made the NCAA Tournament.

"We wanted to find someone who's going to build the program the right way," Donati said. "I heard from many former players that it felt like the program was in sand. Too much inconsistency, too much turnover ... We wanted someone who's built programs and had success at the highest level."

Donati said even though the coaching search technically started "early," it didn't fully pick up until May.

"This is how you hope every search would go, which is you're the best job in the market and the outcome is you get the best candidate, you get the best fit," Donati said. "We lucked out that Kevin was available and wanted to come to South Carolina."

Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her on X@Lulukesin and Bluesky‪@bylulukesin.bsky.social‬

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Kevin Schnall, South Carolina baseball coach arrives in helicopter

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