When Mark Kingston was fired as the head coach of the South Carolina baseball program, there was not a mass exodus from the program. Oftentimes, when a head coach leaves a school (for whatever reason), a large percentage of the roster enters the transfer portal and winds up playing elsewhere the following season.
That isn't what happened in Columbia this season, a testament to the strong work associate head coach Monte Lee put in during the interim between Kingston's dismissal and the hire of new head Gamecock Paul Mainieri.
However, there were a handful of transfer portal defections. Arguably the most impactful of these transfers on the 2023 team was reliever Connor McCreery, a player who entered the portal at the last minute. On Tuesday, though, it was reported that the rising junior has found a new home.
According to a post from McCreery on social media, the right-hander will be joining the Texas Longhorns ahead of the 2025 season. Texas is one of two new members of the Southeastern Conference (along with the Oklahoma Sooners), though, because 2025 schedules have not yet been released, it is unclear if/when the Gamecocks and Longhorns will match up on the diamond.
The 6'6" New York native has a lot of potential that new Longhorn coach Jim Schlossnagle and pitching coach Max Weiner will hope to unlock next spring.
During McCreery's South Carolina baseball career, he showed flashes of brilliance and had more total strikeouts than he had innings pitched, but walks kept him from a consistent role in the Gamecock bullpen. With a step forward during the offseason, he was expected to claim a big role in the 2025 'pen. Instead, if he can figure out his control issues in Austin, then Texas baseball will have added a (potentially) very valuable bullpen piece to their pitching staff.
McCreery has up to two more years of eligibility remaining in his college career.