If you watched a South Carolina baseball game in 2024, you probably saw an error.

The Gamecocks struggled with fielding ground balls, making accurate throws, hitting the cut-off man and everything else you would expect to find somewhere in a Tom Emanksi instructional video.

Sometimes it was a speed bump, but down the stretch it became debilitating. South Carolina committed 17 errors in eight postseason games, setting the SEC Tournament record with a dozen in Hoover only to tack on five more blunders at the Raleigh Regional.

Paul Mainieri knows it, too.

“Hitting and pitching can be up and down,” Mainieri said. “Defense should not be up and down. Defense is the one aspect of the game that you should be able to do fairly consistently.”

South Carolina finished last season second-to-last in the SEC in both errors and fielding percentage, a systemic issue with 19 different players committing at least one error in the team total of 64 in 62 games. Heading into a new season with new personnel, how much of this is fixable beyond just having a new coaching staff in place?

For starters, the two team leaders in errors — Parker Noland and Gavin Casas with 10 apiece — are no longer in the program. Noland and Casas made up the right side of South Carolina’s infield last season and never found their footing defensively.

Will Tippett projects to slide over from shortstop to second base, with the situation at first base still up in the air. Superstar slugger and 2024 right fielder Ethan Petry took a lot of reps at first base in the fall, but he is also competing with Clemson transfer Nolan Nawrocki for the role.

Petry’s spot in the lineup is not up for debate with his offensive prowess, just his position. But for nearly everyone else jockeying between roles, defense is a separator.

“I tell our players if you want to play regularly for this coach you better be able to play good defense,” Mainieri said. “It’s a prerequisite.”

Henry Kaczmar is the wild card. The Ohio State transfer and 2024 Second Team All-Big Ten shortstop will be a plug-and-play piece for Mainieri, sliding Tippett across the middle infield and changing the double play tandem. True freshman KJ Scobey has the inside track for the third base job, meaning the Gamecocks should take the field on Opening Day with four starting infielders who either played a different position last spring or were not even in the program.

After 41 of those 64 errors last season came from infield spots, this makeover at least has a chance to be better. Junior college transfers Cayden Gaskin and Jase Woita add two more depth pieces to the infield who have factored into scrimmages, and true freshman Beau Hollins is another newcomer.

This is a fresh group, but finding the right combination will be its own challenge.

“I feel like we have a ton of utility guys,” Kaczmar said. “We can play a lot of different guys who can play a lot of different spots, and that’s something that’s only going to help us throughout the year.”

And of course, the elephant in the room is behind the plate.

In addition to being the cleanup hitter and the emotional leader of last season’s team, starting catcher Cole Messina was outstanding behind the plate. His departure to professional baseball is unquestionably the biggest hole for this team to fill and as always, it will have a critical impact on the overall defense.

Last year’s third baseman and former catcher Talmadge LeCroy has taken up the position again through the fall, joining a crowded room with Texas A&M transfer Max Kaufer, sophomore Ryan Bakes and incoming freshman Gavin Braland. LeCroy projects as the starter with the highest offensive upside, but Kaufer offers more SEC catching experience.

Right now the position is murky at best, an alarming concern for this team as the season approaches.

“Being very transparent, it’s the one area of the team that I’m most concerned about,” Mainieri said. “I don’t even know for sure what we’re going to do yet.”

Like seemingly everything else with these Gamecocks, questions linger. A turned over roster provides a legitimate opportunity for improvement, but few sure things.

Really, the only sure thing is that last year’s debacle can’t happen again. Not for this team, or for its pitchers, who as a staff lean more towards pitching to contact and getting ground balls.

“You can’t pitch great unless you have a great defensive team behind you unless you strike out two batters per inning,” Mainieri said. “I don’t think we’ve got that kind of pitching staff.”

A better defensive team is not just a goal. It is a requirement for any tangible step forward.

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