Between commitments from the Mark Kingston era and the early days under Paul Mainieri, South Carolina baseball is making a substantial bet on junior college transfers for the 2025 season.

The Gamecocks currently have five players committed from the JUCO ranks, three pitchers and two infielders.

“A junior college transfer or a division I transfer, it’s the same concept,” Mainieri told GamecockScoop. “They’ve got a little more experience as players, they’re physically more developed, and what they do is they fill an immediate need. Freshmen are still gonna play a big role.”

South Carolina has found recent success going the JUCO route, particularly on the mound with Dylan Eskew and James Hicks taking weekend rotation spots over the last two seasons. This particular class looks like it could be even better than the last two, and is already receiving plaudits.

Tad Slowik, former minor league baseball pitcher, Coordinator of Ametur Scouting with the Houston Astros and now president of Dream Big Athletics, is an expert in the JUCO ranks and stacked up the top 200 players in the country.

All five players with South Carolina commitments made the top-60 in his rankings, including three of the top-15 and the No. 1 overall player, pitcher Brandon Stone. In addition to Stone, pitcher Brandon Clarke is No. 11, pitcher Jackson Soucie is at No. 14, infielder Jase Woita is the No. 24 player in his rankings and Cayden Gaskin rounds out the list at No. 54.

Overall he grades it out as the best incoming JUCO class in the country, and shared some thoughts on the Columbia-bound quintet.

“Many of those players have really good seasons statistically,” Slowik told GamecockScoop. “But the first thing to me is the talent level. You get a guy like Stone or Soucie or Clarke and they make those hitters pretty uncomfortable in the batter’s box with the stuff they have.”

Before he even had time to settle into his new office or poke around Founders Park, Mainieri received some intel from a former colleague.

“The first thing that happened when I took the job and I talked to my good friend at Virginia, Brian O’Connor, who was my pitching coach for nine years at Notre Dame,” Maineiri said. He said, ‘Hey the first call you’ve got to make is to Brandon Stone. South Carolina beat us on getting him; we really liked him.’ So I called Brandon, and he’s still locked in with us and planning on coming.”

Why is Stone the No. 1 junior college prospect in the country? Command is a big part of it with only 19 walks issued in 104 ⅓ innings at Johnson County Community College last year. So is the strikeout stuff, with 113 punchouts. The big game performance helped, when he rose to the occasion and fired a complete game to send his team to the JUCO World Series back in May.

“Stone is the complete package,” Slowik said. “I think [South Carolina] is going to have the good fortune of him not being drafted because a lot of people are late to the party on him. He was 93-96 when I’ve seen him throw, good life on his fastball missing barrels. 88 MPH slider that is just intimidating hitters.”

Clarke comes in from the left side with a similar track record after striking out 107 batters in 74 ⅓ innings at State College of Florida last year, but South Carolina faces more of a threat of losing him before he ever gets to campus than the other four players in the class in Slowik’s mind.

“Brandon Clarke is probably out of all those players the biggest risk to lose, there’s no question about that,” Slowik said about the MLB Draft. “He has live stuff, and he’s been on people’s radar for awhile. And I think he really matured this year as a pitcher.”

The Draft is July 14-16 and Clarke is likely to get picked and have a chance to sign, but if he declines it and makes it to campus, he will contribute immediately.

“Clarke’s stuff is electric,” Slowik said. “Same thing, 94-97, a hammer for a curveball and just wipeout stuff. When he was getting it over this year, he was pretty much lights out.”

Soucie has been locked in with the Gamecocks since last October, then posted 37 strikeouts in 25 innings in his freshman season at Wabash Valley College. The 6-foot-4 lefty is the youngest and least experienced of the three pitchers, but has plenty of room to grow into his stuff.

“The great thing is, all these guys are better days ahead of them,” Slowik said. “He [Soucie] was a little dinged up last year and really came on at the end of last year, and then this year he was just lights out most of the time. He really showed a lot more consistency.

“Same prototype as most of these other guys, 93-95 lefty with a lot of life on his fastball, good hard breaking ball and just knows how to pitch. Really improved his changeup this year. He’s got three quality pitches that I think are going to give hitters a hard time at the next level.”

Moving into the offensive side of the class, Woita represents the biggest bat coming in. He hit 23 home runs over two seasons at Kansas City Kansas Community College, knocking in 138 runs and posting a .417 batting average across 101 games played.

He is draft eligible but if he gets to campus, he will bring a veteran presence to the lineup and at least have a chance to start on a team which struggled to get offensive production from both corner infield spots last year.

“He’s a guy who understands his craft so well,” Slowik said. "I saw him several times during the year and he was never disappointing. The game against Stone, he went 3-for-4 with three hard-hit balls. He doesn’t hit for power, he hits more for hard contact. I think his power production is going to take a big leap at the next level.”

Woita played mostly third and first base at the JUCO level, but Slowik sees an opportunity for some more defensive versatility once he develops a little bit in South Carolina’s program.

“I still think he has the ability to play a corner outfield,” he said. “He’s a good enough outfielder and he’s a strong, really well put together kid.”

Last but not least is Gaskin, who was in contact with South Carolina for a while but officially placed his commitment after the new staff retained Monte Lee as an assistant.

The middle infielder from Northwest Florida State hit .403 with seven home runs and 59 RBIs last year, stealing 41 bases in 55 games.

“He’s the kind of do it all guy,” Slowik said. “He’s a gamer. You can put him in the lineup anyway. He’s the kind of kid who’s going to run through the wall for you. Don’t get me wrong, he’s got good ability, but his makeup is off the charts.”

His speed and contact ability will make him an immediate weapon for Mainieri's offense but like Woita, Slowik sees another potential layer to his game.

“In the development process the power is usually the last thing that comes for a player," Slowik explained. "So I think he’s going to have some power in him at the next level.”

While it is unrealistic to expect all five players to be immediate breakout candidates and all will surely have growing pains adapting to SEC life, this group has a chance to help South Carolina supplement its roster with talent while the new staff gets going on the recruiting trail and tries to build long term.

“I think at least three or four of those guys are going to be prominent factors,” Slowik concluded. “I think all those guys are ready to hit the deck running. Woita to me is going to be a big bat. I have a great feeling that he’s going to hit; I’ve just seen him produce so often. And all those pitchers are going to have some value.”

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