Bowen sees potential with South Carolina next season
SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS BASEBALL
When Bryant Bowen made the decision to leave Southern Miss after four seasons, he didn’t expect his second recruitment to take off the way it did.
As soon as he put his name in the transfer portal almost 30 schools were lining up to put their hats in the ring but one quickly rose to the top: South Carolina.
The Gamecocks got in early and made a great impression on the plug-and-play utility player and it ended with Bowen committing to South Carolina about a week ago.
(It was) pretty nuts to be honest,” Bowen told GamecockCentral. “You don’t get to do the recruiting thing more than once after high school but this new transfer portal has opened a lot of opportunity. I heard from like 25 schools. South Carolina called and I heard from Coach (Trip) Couch and Coach (Mark) Kingston personally. They flew me out for a day visit a few days later. Everything kind of matched up with what was said over the phone and there were no read flags. Personally, it was a match as well with their needs as a program and my needs as a player.”
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Bowen will come in as a grad transfer with one year of eligibility left and should be able to make an immediate impact, especially offensively.
Over the last three seasons, Bowen hit .320/.394/.519 with 18 career homers and is coming off a career year where he slashed .341/.403/.563 with 11 homers and 51 RBI for a Golden Eagles team that made the postseason.
The biggest question is where Bowen will fit defensively, though.
He’s primarily a catcher but said he’s comfortable playing in the infield and wants to do whatever he can to make sure his bat is somewhere in the lineup.
“My bat plays and defensively I catch but am able to play some corner positions so as long as my bat is in the lineup I believe I can be a quality asset,” he said.
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The Gamecocks are coming off a rough year where they finished 8-22 in SEC play and are hoping Bowen can come in and give a provide a veteran boost offensively to that lineup.
It works for both parties with Bowen hoping the Gamecock coaching staff can elevate his game to the next level so he can begin his professional career after that.
“I’m very confident in where they can get me,” he said. “That was a lot of the reason for the move. The dream is to play professional baseball and if you can perform at the high amateur level of baseball, that can happen at the end of the day; especially with the resources a play like South Carolina has. If you’re able to utilize them correctly and do it in the right ways, good things will happen.”
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Bowen will be on campus next month to start his Gamecock career, ready to get started and play on one of the biggest stages in college baseball to try and make a deep postseason run.
“Just the history the program has. The crowds I’ll play in front of and the level of baseball as well,” he said of what he’s excited about. “I think coming in as a seasoned veteran to help the younger and new guys is huge. So lots of things.”