South Carolina’s new pitching coach has a few key asks of recruits, players

It’s been nearly three weeks since South Carolina named Paul Mainieri as the head baseball coach to replace the fired Mark Kingston. Monte Lee and Terry Rooney have been the new USC staff from Day One, trying to assemble the 2025 team from a recruiting standpoint as well as talking to the guys on the current roster.

There’s been an NCAA-mandated dead period during that time, but those two worked tirelessly on the recruiting trail — both with high school players and ones in the transfer portal.

Lee is well-known around South Carolina and was considered for the head coaching spot after being on the staff under Kingston. Rooney, meanwhile, is someone who’s been in the game for nearly three decades, with a lot of that time spent in the SEC.

Rooney most recently served as the associate director of program development and recruiting at LSU. It was his second stint with the Tigers, having served as a pitching coach and recruiting coordinator under Mainieri from 2007-2008. The two were also together from 2004-06 at Notre Dame.

Rooney was also head coach at UCF from 2009 to 2016 and amassed 261 career victories.

Make no mistake about it: Rooney is happy to be back with Mainieri and at a place that rivals anywhere in the country with the passion for the baseball program. He’ll be the Gamecocks’ pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.

“The opportunity to come to South Carolina is something that I was absolutely ecstatic about, for a ton of reasons,” Rooney said at the introductory press conference on June 11. “It starts with Coach (Mainieri). He’s my mentor, he’s my friend. He’s somebody I look up to. But I understand the great tradition of South Carolina.”

It’s been a whirlwind since that press conference. Rooney has been trying to get to know the pitchers on the current roster as well as recruit. The Gamecocks have added several arms from the transfer portal, with Rooney being a huge part of that.

South Carolina has landed pitchers Ashton Crowther (Miami), Jarvis Evans (Georgia), Wyatt Evans (Tennessee) and Caleb Jones (Winthrop) in the last couple of weeks.

What does Rooney look for when recruiting pitchers?

“I want these guys to have aspirations to pitch in the major leagues. That should be why they’re coming here — to develop. Our track record collectively as a staff is as good as anyone in the country,” Rooney said. “I’m going to make sure we have a pitching staff that attacks the strike zone, No. 1, then No. 2, competes in the clutch.

“We want to have poise in clutch situations and do it when it matters. I want guys to embrace and love the big moment. In college baseball, most games come down to three to five pitches. How do we get on the other side of three to five pitches?”

Rooney, Lee and third assistant John Hendry (who also has a pitching background) have already established those ground rules.

The ultimate goal is to assemble a team to get the Gamecocks back to Omaha and the College World Series. South Carolina won back-to-back national championships in 2010-2011 and finished runner-up in 2012. They haven’t been back to Omaha since.

With the experience of the coaching staff and what they want to do, Rooney believes that trend changes sooner rather than later.

“I feel like the best players in the country want to go somewhere they’re going to develop into a major league player, and somewhere they’re going to have a chance to go to Omaha and win a national championship. All of the best players in America want that, whether they are a high school kid, a junior college transfer or a four-year transfer,” Rooney said.

“Those are the two variables that the best players in the country want. And, obviously, those are two factors that can distinguish us from others.”