One positive and one not-so-positive injury update from Paul Mainieri

Up to this point, South Carolina has been dealing with injuries for the better part of the entire season. Then, after Tuesday’s 13-3 win over USC Upstate, head coach Paul Mainieri provided both some good and bad news on the injury front.

Back on Sunday, Mainieri said Dylan Eskew was scheduled to throw on Tuesday. As it turned out, the right-hander did have his bullpen session, and it went better than Mainieri could’ve imagined.

“It was about as positive as it could be,” Mainieri said. “I would not have believed that yesterday, because yesterday he was not feeling good at all, just trying to play catch. But today, he threw a bullpen and didn’t have any pain at all, and threw all those pitches.”

Eskew went into concussion protocol after being struck by a batting practice home run two weekends ago at Arkansas. After being cleared, Mainieri revealed that Eskew was having some problems with his oblique, which only worsened after he was hit in the head by the home run. All this caused him to miss his last three starts.

While Mainieri hasn’t revealed what his weekend rotation will look like ahead of traveling to Texas A&M, he didn’t rule out the possibility of Eskew returning to the mound. He said there’s a chance “it won’t look the same.”

“Now we’re gonna have to wait and see how he feels tomorrow after throwing,” he said. “But it was as good as it could have gone today. So we have to just play it by ear tomorrow and see what he feels.”

The other piece of news wasn’t as promising as Eskew’s. Talmadge LeCroy, who hasn’t played since March 25, will “probably” be out for the rest of the year.

“Unfortunately, I met with him today. He got an injection before we went to Mississippi State in his hip, and it just didn’t really help him much at all,” Mainieri said. “So I think he’s resolved to having to have a procedure that’s going to have a six or seven-week type of recovery, which takes us to the end of the season.”

It’s a tough blow for South Carolina since LeCroy came into the season as the team’s starting catcher after making the switch from third base to behind the plate. But given how many games he’s missed this season, Mainieri said there’s a chance he would be able to medically redshirt.

“He actually does qualify for it, but barely,” Mainieri said. “He would have had to have played in 18 or less games, and he’s played in 17. So that wasn’t by design. That was just really kind of blind luck. And then there’s another factor.”

In those 17 games he’s played in, LeCroy has hit .188 with nine hits and six RBI in 48 at-bats. If he chooses to come back for another year, the 2026 season would be his fifth at South Carolina. Though he will still have to decide if that’s something he wants to do.

“He’s going to graduate this summer, so he’s going to have to make a decision whether or not he wants to play it and go to graduate school or get on with his life,” Mainieri said.

South Carolina will begin a three-game series with Texas A&M starting Thursday night in College Station. First pitch is at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

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