South Carolina Baseball: Transfer portal brings Gamecocks a conference pitcher of the year award winner
By Kevin Miller
The South Carolina baseball program has been extremely active in the transfer portal in the early goings of the 2023 offseason. After losing to the Florida Gators in the Gainesville super regional just over a week ago, the Gamecocks started retooling the roster.
The latest transfer portal addition to the program is College of Charleston defection Ty Good. Good was the Colonial Athletic Conference pitcher of the year in 2023 after posting a 4.26 ERA, a .212 batting average allowed, and 93 strikeouts in 82 and 1/3 innings on the season. Without one bad start against NCAA Tournament team Northeastern, Good’s ERA would drop to 3.65.
Good is a graduate transfer who will have one year to play for the Gamecocks. He is expected to compete for a starting rotation spot along with returners Eli Jones, Matthew Becker, and Roman Kimball (Will Sanders, James Hicks, Noah Hall, and Jack Mahoney are all expected to be taken in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft).
Prior to Good’s pledge to Mark Kingston and the Gamecocks, Carolina had secured commitments from three transfer players.
North Florida’s Austin Brinling actually committed to the Gamecocks before South Carolina’s season was officially over. The speedy outfielder will compete for a starting job and could be a nice fit in the leadoff spot.
Charlotte transfer Blake Jackson could also make some noise in the offseason outfield competition as he finished the year on a high note. A high on-base player, Jackson takes a lot of walks and has enough speed to factor into the leadoff battle as well.
Left-handed pitcher Garrett Gainey is joining the Gamecocks from Liberty, and although he did not put up great numbers this season, the South Carolina native has shown good stuff that can generate swings and misses. He will have a chance to play a role in 2024 as pitching coach Justin Parker’s staff is in desperate need of left-handed help.
Two players have also elected to leave the South Carolina baseball team. Talented infielder Michael Braswell has left the program to join the LSU Tigers, and graduate reliever Brett Thomas announced his own intentions to transfer but has not found his landing spot.