On Wednesday, South Carolina baseball picked up a commitment from junior college left-handed pitcher Aydin Palmer. Palmer, a native of the Palmetto State, graduated from South Florence High School in 2023 and spent this past season playing for the Florence-Darlington Tech Stingers, a junior college program in the state.
As a junior college pitcher, Palmer posted a 9-3 record with a 4.18 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP. Those numbers don't look spectacular on the surface, but the southpaw also struck out 77 batters in 60 1/3 innings pitched this year, indicating he has a lot of potential to get outs. His biggest weakness is his control as he walked 30 batters.
Palmer's fastball sits in the upper 80s and low 90s, and he has a curveball and change-up that he is comfortable throwing as out pitches. If he can rein in the walks, he can be a solid pitcher in the SEC. He was primarily a starter with Florence-Darlington but has enough "stuff" to slide over into a bullpen role if that's what pitching coach Terry Rooney needs him to do.
Palmer is one of several junior college pitchers expected to join the South Carolina baseball program this offseason. Brandon Stone, Jackson Soucie, Kemper Nix, and Brendan Sweeney all are committed to USC from the junior college ranks. Brandon Clarke, another Gamecock junior college pledge, was drafted in the 5th round by the Boston Red Sox in this week's MLB Draft, so it is expected that he will sign a professional contract and not report to school.
The Gamecocks are over the scholarship limit, and adding Palmer makes the numbers even bigger. However, a handful of Gamecocks have professional decisions to make as Cole Messina and Eli Jones have remaining eligibility but were drafted from the current roster, high school signees PJ Morlando and Carson Messina are expected to sign instead of report to USC, and several other players could ink free agent contracts.