Gamecock 2022 commit talks baseball pledge
Connor McCreery wouldn’t have imagined 18 months ago being where he is today.
The right-handed pitcher from New York was fielding some calls from coaches when the pandemic hit and threw what he called a dagger into his recruitment.
What happened next was a blessing in disguise for McCreery, who went from the 2021 to 2022 recruiting class, take a prep year at P27 Academy and is one of the Gamecocks’ recent baseball commitments.
“COVID really messed up my recruiting process but in the end it really helped,” “Now I’m going to an SEC school,” McCreery told GamecockCentral. “I think it was a blessing in disguise almost having to go to P27 Academy because I wouldn’t have those connections I have now or the influence or development I have now.”
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McCreery, originally from New York, came on the Gamecocks’ radar recently and threw on campus recently, sparking South Carolina to begin recruiting him hard.
Over the course of his recruitment, and visit to campus meeting with pitching coach Justin Parker, sold him on South Carolina and the development he’d get in the Gamecocks’ program.
“It was really exciting to see a coaching staff excited about winning and developing me as I was. Something I was really big on is my development and being put into a winning culture. That’s very important to me. Coach Parker, he really stressed to me how he’d do that. It wasn’t just, ‘Listen man, I’m going to make you better and do all this stuff.’ He sat me down for 40 minutes on my visit and showed me multiple ways. He gave me a mini pitching lesson,” he said.
“He sat me in his office and we watched some pitching AI. We broke down my pitching mechanics. He showed me how he coaches players and develops them. I really appreciated that. A lot of coaches just say they can do that, but coach Parker sat me down and showed me what he could do for me.”
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McCreery, a right-handed pitcher, is newer to the pitching world—noting himself he’s a “very raw player” with plenty to work on this season.
He’s topped out at 92 miles per hour with the potential to get up into the upper-90s before his college career is over. The biggest thing now for the big righty is developing a changeup so he can arrive on campus with a three-pitch mix.
“I have a lot of potential and I think a lot of people see that. My mechanics aren’t 100 percent there and a lot of things are lacking: muscles are lacking, leg size, all that stuff. It’s all lacking, but I’m still getting the job done on the mound,” McCreery said.
“He saw that when I came there and pitched. He saw that this weekend when I was in Jupiter. Right now I’m touching 92 with a lot of untapped potential. He talked and said he could get me touching 97 or 98 by my senior year. He’s just excited for me to get in there and for him to work with me.”
He’ll spend this season at P27 Academy, a stone’s throw away from Founders Park in Lexington (S.C.) being coached by former Gamecock pitcher Sawyer Bridges.
“Sawyer Bridges, he’s incredible. I’ve never been around someone like him. It’s great to work with a person who not only relates to his players but he’s a young coach,” he said.
“He’s a great coach. He got a lot of that from South Carolina. He’s unbelievable with the developmental stuff and teaches me something new every single day. It’s a very big blessing to be around someone like him.”
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