South Carolina baseball may have missed out on landing Clemson transfer Billy Amick a couple of days ago, but he was not the only target left on the Gamecocks’ board. On Friday, Mark Kingston’s team added another player through the transfer portal, this time a pitcher.
Matt Duffy, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s Pitcher of the Year for 2023, announced his commitment to the Gamecocks through a graphic on his personal Twitter account.
Duffy has won awards in the MAAC every year of his college career up to this point.
In his three seasons at Canisius College, Duffy was selected as a member of the MAAC’s All-Freshman team in 2021, made the conference’s All-Tournament team in both 2021 and 2022, was the Tournament Pitcher of the Year in 2022, was selected as a first-team performer in 2022, and was a first-teamer and Conference Pitcher of the Year in 2023.
The Pitcher of the Year award was well-deserved as the junior put up an insane stat line this past season.
Duffy struck out a remarkable 119 batters this spring in just 80 and 2/3 innings while walking only 28 hitters. Duffy struck out more batters than he allowed total bases in 2023, and he also fanned 18 more opposing hitters than he allowed hits, walks, and hit-by-pitches combined.
After the 2023 season, he was also one of Division-1 baseball’s top performers in the Cap Cod League.
Fielding his position should be no problem for Duffy as he was a three-sport athlete in high school, boasting a four-year varsity career as a volleyball player and two years on the basketball squad at Assumption Catholic Secondary School.
Duffy will compete for a starting pitching spot in the weekend rotation. If that doesn’t work out for the Canisius transfer, his elite strikeout stuff could play really well in the bullpen for new pitching coach Matt Williams and his South Carolina baseball pitching staff.
The 6’2″ Duffy joins Ty Good (College of Charleston), Garrett Gainey (Liberty), and Tyler Dean (Virginia Tech) as transfer portal pitchers joining the Gamecocks. Outfielders Kennedy Jones, Austin Brinling, and Blake Jackson are also joining the South Carolina baseball program, and so are catcher Dalton Reeves (Presbyterian) and infielders Parker Noland and Zac Morris.