Gamecocks land local prospect who's 'going to be a pro arm one day'

In baseball recruiting, it’s not atypical for a highly ranked player to commit two or three years before he’s even able to sign his NLI. So, when a talented player commits less than a year before graduation, it can be a big boost for a recruiting class.

It looks like that’s the case with South Carolina, who picked up a commitment late last week from 2020 left-hander and outfielder Kameron Dunlap.

“I think it’s huge, man. I think he’s good enough to get picked up two years ago,” his head coach Blake Roland said. “I honestly think he’s good enough and he’s going to help wherever he goes. I think he’s going to be a pro arm one day. For somebody like South Carolina to get him six or seven months before he graduates, that’s outstanding. That’s huge for them.”

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Dunlap played his sophomore year at White Knoll before going to play at another school in South Carolina before coming back to Columbia for his senior season to play under Dunlap again.

It was once he got back he popped on South Carolina’s radar, running a 6.4 60-yard dash and topping out in the low-90s at a prospect camp before impressing the coaching staff again at the annual Palmetto Games in August.

Roland was shocked more teams weren’t after him after that, but South Carolina was and Dunlap didn’t wait long to pull the trigger.

“A lot of things popped off the charts the coaches really liked,” Roland said. “They decided to give him a follow and he threw really well at the palmetto games. He didn’t have a whole lot of looks. He had a couple schools interested but USC was always the top of the list for him. It was kind of a dream come true for him, I think.”

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Dunlap is listed by PerfectGame as an outfielder but Roland said if he was in college and the season started tomorrow Dunlap would be a lefty pitcher.

There’s a lot of talent there, though, and Roland said he still thinks Dunlap has the potential to be a two-way player at the next level.

Right now he’s touching 92 miles per hour and with some more weight on his frame he could easily get his fastball velocity up a tick or two more.

"He’s low 90s and still developing,” Roland said. “We believe that if he can click, he’s a mid-90s guy for sure. We think he can be mid-90s by March. There’s just so much undeveloped as a pitcher that he’s just a complete arm talent. If he clicks on a few things mechanically as a pitcher, there’s no reason he couldn’t be mid-90s. He’s 165 pounds right now. His goal is to be 180. If he puts on some weight, at the next level for sure he’ll be an impact guy as a left-handed arm.”

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Dunlap has been pretty much an under the radar prospect in high school and Roland’s not entirely sure why.

If he keeps pitching and playing like he has this summer, it might be hard to keep him under that radar for long.

“Nobody’s known him for way too long in my opinion. He’s a really good kid, first off. He’s got really high character and gets along with a lot of people. He’s easy going,” Roland said. “The first time I saw him he was a sophomore and it just jumped off the page, man. He can hit for average and power. He’s fast as heck. I mean, he’s completely athletic and a good ball player. He’s an overall good kid. He deserves a lot.”