South Carolina zeroes in on top mid-major skipper as next coach

South Carolina has found its next head baseball coach.

As had widely been expected since the team fired Paul Mainieri early in the season, Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall has reportedly accepted the job with the Gamecocks. Schnall, who was in his second season with the Chanticleers this spring, led Coastal to the national title series last season before losing to LSU.

This year, Schnall’s team returned to the NCAA tournament but was eliminated in the Tallahassee Regional.

Schnall had been the focus of the search, though South Carolina also reportedly kicked the tires on North Carolina coach Scott Forbes, per D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers.

COACHING NEWS: @GamecockBSB, as expected since day one, will name Coastal Carolina’s Kevin Schnall as its head coach. Schnall, despite flirtations with Scott Forbes (that wasn’t happening), has been the frontrunner for the #Gamecocks job all along. Good job by SC not to overthink… pic.twitter.com/3BVzyDL8zA

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) June 9, 2026

He got some play for another SEC job last offseason, interviewing for the job at Tennessee when Tony Vitello left for the San Francisco Giants. However, the Volunteers ultimately went with an internal hire in top assistant coach Josh Elander.

Schnall has a 93-36 record in two seasons at Coastal, and the Gamecocks are hoping he can return the program to national championship stature after three failed hires in a row. Mainieri didn’t even last two full seasons as the former national championship coach at LSU, as the Gamecocks went 40-40 with a 6-28 record in SEC play during his brief tenure.

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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: South Carolina baseball hiring Coastal Carolina coach Kevin Schnall