In baseball, it usually takes a few years to really see a staff’s recruiting prowess; recruiting classes are built two or three years in advance and when a new coach takes over, it might be a handful of years to really see results on the recruiting trail.
The 2020 recruiting class was the first class Mark Kingston was able to build from top to bottom, and it resulted in one of the better classes in recent memory.
“I think it’s the most talented group at any school I’ve been at that I’ve been associated with,” Trip Couch said. “In terms of just ability, size, athleticism, there’s just some really neat and talented kids that are going to be here and hopefully get this thing back to where it’s supposed to be.”
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Couch, the Gamecocks’ recruiting coordinator, was in that position building the back-end of the class, but the bulk of the group was put together by Mike Current, who was the team’s recruiting coordinator and is now the team’s Director of Player Development.
What those two—along with Kingston and pitching coach Skylar Meade—were able to build was a class widely considered top 12 in the country with PerfectGame ranking it as high as No. 7 nationally.
The Gamecocks have three players in PerfectGame’s top 100 high school prospects in the country—Brandon Fields, 31; Will Sanders, 58; Alek Boychuk, 90—with Baseball America including those three along with Luke Little, Jackson Phipps, Magdiel Cotto, Jalen Vasquez and Josh Shuler in its top 500 prospect list.
The best part for the Gamecocks is they’re expected to get all of those guys on campus after only Luke Little was drafted in last week’s MLB Draft and get to pair the incoming guys with a lot of talent returning to campus.
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“I think they’re going to have enough older guys around them to learn from and not feel the pressure of having to come in and carry the weight,” Couch said. “Some of them will be ready to, but they all mature at their own pace. This group is really talented. Now they have to come in and play well and do that just like anybody.”
There were a handful of guys who had a chance to get picked—primarily pitchers Sanders, Cotto and Phipps—who now get the chance to work with Meade and the rest of the pitching staff.
Meade, who’s been reshaping the Gamecock pitching staff for the last three years, likes what he’s getting with this group.
“I think we got really physical arms. They look like guys that are imposing and they have a chance for a lot more development, which is something we wanted to do. There is certainly some-ready made velocity,” he said.
“I think it’s the complete package between some left-handers, right-handers, some real big-time breaking balls and real power stuff. It’s a beautiful blend. And it’s a beautiful blend of local and we outsourced some talent. We even went JUCO for some talent. I think we get all these guys to school it’s going to be an exciting three or four years for all of them here.”
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It’s a class the Gamecocks are hoping comes in and meshes well with the group they have right now to make an instant impact this season and for the next three or four years.
“It’s a very good class. It’s players that are very good now but have tremendous projection going forward and will continue to get better and better,” Kingston said. “There’s a lot of high-end talent there, a lot of guys who can help us right away and it’s a recruiting class we’re very excited about."
Gamecocks 2020 recruiting class
Cade Austin, RHP
Alek Boychuk, C
Connor Cino, C/1B
Mag Cotto, LHP
David Cromer, OF
Brandon Fields, OF
Travis Luensmann, RHP
Jake Madden, RHP
Jack Mahoney, SS/RHP
David Mendham, INF
Jackson Phipps, LHP
Michael Robinson, INF
Will Sanders, RHP
Josh Shuler, OF
Sam Swygert, RHP
Jalen Vasquez, INF
CJ Weins, RHP
