South Carolina baseball: visit intel, more names to track
The portal is in full swing for South Carolina with the Gamecocks still looking to try and add pieces over the next few weeks.
Here’s the latest with South Carolina baseball and the portal.
South Carolina hosted a few portal visitors over the course of a busy week.
The biggest of the three is pitcher Dominic Niman. The lefty was his conference’s pitcher of the year for Central Connecticut State.
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Niman pitched 104 innings, all starts, finishing the year with a 2.77 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP. He had a 2.3 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a .225 batting average against.
The visit went well, and one source seemed to think South Carolina is in the lead group for Niman’s services. Kentucky and Alabama are also showing interest, but Georgia is the school to watch there.
Wes Johnson–the pitching coach for a national title-winning LSU team–just took over in Athens and is working to rebuild the roster. The Gamecocks, again, are in the mix but will have to hold off Georgia to do it. A decision could come sometime next week.
Another pitcher the Gamecocks hosted was Tennessee lefty Jake Fitzgibbons, who had a 3.75 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP with 20 strikeouts to 10 walks. There wasn’t much intel out of that visit, although it went well.
One pitcher to really watch is Mercer’s Josh Harlow, who is getting closer to a decision. He’ll take a trip out to Arkansas this weekend–the final visit he’ll take–before rendering a decision. He was on campus this week at South Carolina.
Harlow was hurt last season for most of the year, finishing with just 17.1 innings, 23 strikeouts to three walks with a 2.08 ERA and a 0.865 WHIP. South Carolina is a good spot here but will have to cross the finish line.
There is also a new trio of pitchers to know about out of the portal as the Gamecocks turn their attention to the mound to round out their class.
One is Miami’s Karson Ligon, who went into the portal Thursday and will garner a lot of attention from schools. Ligon dealt with some injuries but finished with 50.1 innings over 10 starts. He had a 4.83 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP. South Carolina’s reached out and he’s heard from multiple coaches on staff.
There are two lefties the Gamecocks have on the radar right now with one Coastal Carolina’s Liam Doyle and Sam Houston State’s Braden Davis.
Doyle is coming off an excellent year with the Chants, finishing with 23 appearances (seven starts) and registering a 4.15 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP.
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Davis was Sam Houston’s closer, picking up five saves over 45.1 innings with a 2.79 ERA. He had a 1.40 WHIP and a .194 batting average against. He struck out 61 to 31 walks. He’s from Texas and played his first few years of college baseball there, so it could be hard for South Carolina to pluck him out of the Lonestar state. Monte Lee was in touch with him Friday.
The Gamecocks are trying to set up visits to get both Ligon and Doyle on campus sometime soon. There is a dead period, though running from July 3 to July 5.
Regarding infielders, the Gamecocks seem to be done with recruiting infielders now with the addition of Parker Noland. Billy Amick is the most significant offensive piece on the board right now. South Carolina is in the lead group. But Tennessee has pushed and Florida is still lingering for the right-handed, power-hitting infielder.
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