New South Carolina baseball coach Paul Mainieri will have the luxury of an elite group of junior college talents joining the program in his first year with the Gamecocks.
At the time of this writing, USC has received commitments from seven junior college prospects as pitchers Brandon Stone (Johnson County Community College), Brandon Clarke (State College of Florida), Jackson Soucie (Wabash Valley College), Kemper Nix (Spartanburg Methodist College), and Brendan Sweeney (Blinn College) and position players Jase Woita (Kansas City Kansas Community College) and Cayden Gaskin (Northwest Florida State College) will join the program this fall.
The group of JuCo players are sure to make a major impact on the team next season.
According to Dream Big Athletics and former MLB scout Tad Slowick, the Gamecocks have five of the top-54 junior college prospects in the country committed in the class.
Right-handed pitcher Brandon Stone slots in as the #1 overall JuCo player in DBA's rankings and, obviously, the #1 pitcher and right-handed pitcher.
Brandon Clarke, a left-handed pitcher, is ranked #11 regardless of position and #6 among pitchers. He ranks as the 3rd-best lefty in the junior college class.
Another left-handed pitcher, Jackson Soucie, is the #14 JuCo product according to DBA. He also is the 8th-highest pitcher in the rankings and the 4th-best lefty.
First baseman/third baseman Jase Woita is 23rd on DBA's list, and he is also the 11th-ranked position player in the rankings. No players listed as first basemen are ranked higher than Woita.
Cayden Gaskin, a utility player who can play middle infield or outfield, is ranked 54th in DBA's junior college rankings. He is the 27th-rated position player, and only two players ranked ahead of him are listed with realistic multi-positional versatility on their DBA page.
All of these junior college stars are eligible for the 2024 MLB Draft, but only Brandon Clarke (who pitched for the Alabama Crimson Tide before heading to junior college) attended the 2024 MLB Draft Combine. Clarke likely will be selected in the draft, and depending on how high he is picked, he could opt to head to the professional ranks instead of enrolling at the University of South Carolina.