After five years of recruiting Dylan Eskew, Justin Parker finally landed the junior college right-hander.

The Gamecocks’ pitching coach recruited Eskew out of high school—when he was 14 and 15 years old—while at UCF and then again with Eskew coming off Tommy John surgery at Indiana.

Now, with Parker in Columbia, Eskew jumped in the boat in the Gamecocks’ 2022 class and is eager to get to work with Parker.

“There were a few other schools who made it tougher but once Justin Parker was there it made South Carolina a no-brainer,” Eskew said.

“Last year I had TJ and he offered me when he was at Indiana fresh off tommy john. That meant a lot to me. I was hurt and him wanting to bring a guy in two weeks off surgery meant a lot to me. I’m not really a cold kind of guy so it didn’t work out for me, but he finally got to a SEC, good-weather school and obviously South Carolina’s program speaks for itself. Once he got there it was an easy decision for me.”

Eskew was drafted out of high school but ultimately started his career at Miami, his dream school growing up, and left to go to Florida junior college Chipola.

Through all of it was Parker, who would stay engaged with Eskew and even broke down some of his bullpen film before committing when Parker was in the Big Ten. It was then Eskew realized he was “the real deal.”

During his recruitment this round he went to a handful of other schools, including Alabama, but liked what he saw from the Gamecock coaching staff and the campus.

“Once you look into it and who’s going to develop you better, South Carolina wins that by a mile. The field to start with at South Carolina is second to none. That’s a legit minor league facility. One thing I pointed out to my parents is the weight room is right there,” Eskew said.

“The weight room, trainer, offices are all in one building. At Miami you had to walk across the street to get your lift in and across the road to the trainer. The fact everything is right there in one facility is really cool to me.”

Coming out of high school Eskew was considered the No. 125 player in his class and was drafted in the 24th round by the Diamondbacks before having a bump in his career with Tommy John surgery.

Eskew recently took the next step in his rehab, throwing to live hitters last week.

“That went really well and threw well. Got a bunch of strikeouts and a few groundouts. It’s been really good,” he said. “If you watch NFL games where guys start to have tears well in their eyes during the national anthem, I wouldn’t say it was happy or sad tears but emotion coming out of me because I was back. It was a long and short 12 months and I’m blessed to be back. No setbacks feels good.”

Eskew if he gets on campus has a chance to compete for weekend starter innings in the 2023 season but needs to get through the 2022 season in his first season back from surgery.

“Just proving it to myself. Chipola is a highly scouted college but I don’t need to prove it to any of them. I need to prove it to myself I can be the guy I was before surgery. I was drafted out of high school and I turned down a good amount of money,” Eskew said.

“When you get older you have to prove it to yourself. If I believe in myself on the mound, that’s everything. Just the mentally that I can do this and it’s no one else’s journey. I have to be the one on the mound and be the one who has to get over the plate.”

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