We're going to bury the lead and hold the thoughts on the Paul Mainieri hire. Below are stats and highlights for current Gamecocks in the MLB and Palmetto State connections with the school out in Omaha.

Objectively speaking, the last two days in Omaha might have been the best opening round in CWS history. Three walk-offs, a big ninth inning comeback, and a stolen home run in the ninth inning to preserve a win. The ACC/SEC Omaha Challenge has lived up to the billing. Time will tell if Big Ten programs attempt to compete at baseball going forward, but look for an awful lot of SEC and ACC teams in Omaha in coming decade. If you are a casual fan without a rooting interest, here are the Palmetto State connections I could find on the field of eight.

I did not see any players or coaches with ties to South Carolina on Texas A&M or Florida State's roster. NC State and Carolina will forever be connected after South Carolina hired Wolfpack coach and grad Ray Tanner. Current Wolfpack coach Elliot Avent, has been manning the NC State dugout since Tanner departed for Columbia.

Tennessee's roster connection is former Clemson Tiger and Batesburg native Billy Amick. The transfer went 2-5 in Tennessee's comeback win over FSU on Friday. He hit .315 with 23 homers and 64 RBIs this season.

The Virginia connection is one Gamecock fans should actively be rooting against. John Hendry is set to join Paul Mainieri's staff in Columbia when Cavs Omaha run ends. The sooner Virginia heads home, the sooner Hendry heads to his new home. Virginia lost a one-run game when Hoos elected to pitch to UNC slugger Vance Honeycutt. Speaking of UNC...

North Carolina has more connections to the Palmetto State than any other team in Omaha. The Heels have four players on their roster from their southern neighbor. Also Dave Arendas, Director of Baseball Operations, is the father of current Rice assistant and former Gamecock DC Arendas. The older Arendas is also married to Chad Holbrook's sister Nicole. Holbrook's son Reece is on UNC's roster but did play this season. Former Mauldin Maverick Alberto Osuna started the Heels CWS win over UVA, but went 0-3 with a golden sombrero. He hit .281 with 14 homers and 56 RBIs this season. Kyle Percival is a Lancaster native that played at Andrew Jackson High. He pitched 22 innings and finished with a 2.42 ERA. Also coming out of the pen was Hampton native Matt Poston. Poston pitched 1.2 innings on Friday and gave up a run. He had a 4.66 ERA on the season with a 5-2 record and four saves.

The Florida Gators picked up two transfers from Coastal Carolina last offseason in Dale Thomas and Tanner Garrison. Garrison appeared in 20 games and hit .246. Thomas made 43 starts but only hit .236 with three homers and 21 RBIs. Colby Shelton was a transfer from Alabama that South Carolina was heavily involved with as his family moved to Lexington, SC. The Gamecocks were outbid for his services. Shelton's averaged dropped to .253 but he had 20 long balls and 55 runs batted in.

Kentucky's roster has a surprising three Palmetto State connections. Former Erskine standout Johnny Hummel picked up the win for the Wildcats in their extra inning victory over NC State. UK also has Charleston Southern transfer Ryan Waldschmidt and College of Charleston transfer (Hanahan product) Trey Pooser. The former hit .340 with 14 home runs this season. Pooser was UK's CWS starter. He was 7-1 with a 3.50 ERA on the season. He picked up a no-decision in the CWS opener.

Six former Gamecocks have played in MLB games this season.

Jonah Bride - Miami Marlins: Bride has appeared in seven games for the Marlins this season. He is currently in the minor leagues. He's 2-for-12 on the season with two RBIs and a walk.

Whit Merrifield - Philadelphia Phillies: Whit's not the player he was but he has still managed to appear in 38 games for the best team in NL. He's hitting .193 with three homers and nine RBIs. Merrifield has also stolen six bases.

Clarke Schmidt - New York Yankees: Schmidt is having his best season in his five year MLB career. He's 5-3 with an ERA of 2.52 with 67 strikeouts and 20 walks in 60.2 IP for the AL leading Yankees.

Christian Walker - Arizona Diamondbacks: Walker is in his 10th MLB season. He's hitting .250 with 15 home runs and 46 RBIs in 71 games. He also sports a .997 field percentage as he is trying to repeat as an NL Golden Glove winner. Walker will earn 10.9 million dollars in 2024.

Jordan Montgomery - Arizona Diamondbacks: Montgomery and his former agent, Scott Boras, are losing their gamble thus far in 2024. They turned down several contracts in the offseason in order to sign a 1-year tender with Arizona. Thus far, Monty is off to his worst season of his career. He's 4-4 with a 6.58 ERA with 32 strikeouts and 19 BB in 52 innings.

Carmen Mlodzinski - Pittsburgh Pirates: Carmen had made his first two career starts this season, both were "bullpen games" for the Pirates. He's 0-2 with a 5.58 ERA with 17K and 9BB thru 15.1 innings. Mlodzinski missed the first month and a half of the season with an injury.

This hire came out of left-field. Mainieri's name was never mentioned until about two hours before the hire was confirmed. As the search drug on, it was pretty clear that the hire was either Monte Lee or someone that no one was reporting on. Had the choice been Polland, Walter, or Godwin, the announcement would have been made days prior.

On one hand, there was no candidate on the board with Mainieri's track record. He's been to Omaha six times with two different schools. He's won a National Championship and coached scores of MLB players. He won 70% of his games at Notre Dame and LSU.

The flip side of the coin is he medically retired after the 2021 season. A former Gamecock player told me point blank, "I'm not sure how excited the guys will be to play for someone that medically retired three years ago." Hence why keeping Monte Lee in fold was so important. The Gamecocks have lost a few guys in their 24' and 25' recruiting classes but they've managed to keep the current roster almost completely out of the portal. Mainieri at 66, is a win now hire. While I'm told that Mainieri is going to get more resources than his predecessor from day one, the Gamecocks aren't going to buy an all-star roster out of the portal like Mainieri's old school. This offseason, the Gamecocks have several spots that they must upgrade, but they aren't starting completely from scratch.

The Mainieri hire has grown on me, but several sources telling me that Ray Tanner is tired of having a mid-tier SEC team and is willing to make more of a financial commitment has me excited for the future of Carolina Baseball.