Catching up with baseball signee Michael Braswell

When Michael Braswell committed to South Carolina in September of 2018, a few months after Mark Kingston and his staff took over, there was no wavering.

It was a sticking point for Braswell in his recruitment that when he committed it was to a program and he wouldn’t need to be constantly re-recruited to stick with a school and a coaching staff.

“I’m not one of those guys where you have to talk to me to keep me committed,” Braswell told GamecockCentral. “I committed cause I fell in love with the school and fell in love with the coaches and that hasn’t changed.”

And it’s the same process he’s taking as the MLB Draft inches closer and Braswell continues to garner attention from professional baseball teams.

Braswell is one of the higher-rated signees in South Carolina’s 2021 class, ranked the No. 90 overall prospect by Baseball America for the draft and No. 105 by MLB.com.

But Braswell isn’t too concerned with it, putting a high price on playing collegiately.

“I’m a big proponent of college,” he said. “My parents are big into education. It’s going to take a lot; it’s going to take a lot, for me to not go to South Carolina. When the time comes, just know it’s going to take a lot."

PerfectGame considers Braswell the No. 59 overall high school prospect in his class and the 16th-best shortstop in his grade.

This season for Campbell (Ga.) High School he slashed .447/.595/.647 according to MaxPreps with 16 RBI where he also pitched out of the bullpen with a 1.00 ERA and 41 strikeouts. He also struck out 10 times in 121 plate appearances.

“This offseason I gained about 15 or 20 pounds so the ball started coming off a lot harder. I’ve always been a big bat to ball guy,” Braswell said. “I don’t strikeout much. I square up a lot of balls. My big problem was driving balls into the gaps and driving them out the park. I got my power increased and my arm strength ticked up a little bit.”

This season as a senior he also had to take over a leadership role and thinks that really helped grow his game.

“It definitely had a big impact of me being a captain cause I was taking on a bigger role,” he said. “I was taking on more responsibility. Going into the season that put a lot of pressure on me, and I believe I performed really well as a captain and as a player.”

Braswell is part of South Carolina’s 2021 class ranked No. 14 overall by Perfect Game and thinks once he arrives on campus there’s a level of energy he can bring to the program.

“I think I can bring an energy that I feel like hasn’t been brought to the program in a while. A lot of people say I have an infectious personality when it comes to being a ballplayer and person off the field as well,” Braswell said.

“The passion I play the game with and fun I play the game with is going to rub off on the team. I feel like if that happens everything will be loose and we’ll get to balling."