McGregor 'just starting to scratch the surface' of his abilities

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS BASEBALL

South Carolina’s freshman class has officially arrived on campus this summer with eight freshmen either on campus or expected before school starts in August.

Before fall ball starts, GamecockCentral is profiling each freshman by talking to someone who knows them best in their high school coach.

We caught up left-handed pitcher Will McGregor’s head coach at T.L. Hanna Daniel Crenshaw, who talked about McGregor battling through injuries and what he can bring to next year’s pitching staff.

GC: What is Will’s game like?

DC: The positive about Will is I think he’s just starting to scratch the surface of what he can do on the mound. When he was in high school, his sophomore year he had an arm injury and didn’t pitch at all. He was pretty much the DH for us. he hurt his back a little bit during his junior year; he didn’t pitch much his junior year but really took off his senior year. I think he’s just still learning to pitch and there’s a lot of upside there if he continues to progress.

The biggest thing pitching-wise for him is his fastball. He can run his fastball around htat 90 mark but it’s also got a lot of arm side run, which really makes it a tough, tough pitch for hitters to hit. his slider, that’s a pitch he struggled with a little but he’s really learning how to command it and tweak it so he’s comfortable with it. But his changeup, I think he’s got a lot of confidence in that and he was able to throw that to keep hitters honest and keep them off his fastball this spring.

GC: How nice was it to see Will stay mentally strong and fight through those injuries to come out stronger on the other side?

DC: The thing with Will is he’s going to work. He was one of our leaders; in practice he never took a play off, was always hustling, was always competing. You could see a little bit of frustration when a 16-year-old sophomore and when he’s a junior, you knew the stuff was there but it was about when he was going to be able to harness and control it. you could see a little bit of frustration there but you saw the confidence grow as the year progressed his senior year. As with any high school kid, when things are going well he would keep it rolling. The times he struggled he was able to step off and slow the game down and you could really see he was learning and developing.

GC: You’ve obviously been with him a lot the last four years, what’s the biggest thing you’ve seen develop since he’s been with you?

DC: His confidence. I’ve been fortunate to coach a few big-time players in my time at T.L. Hanna and typically when I’m in a high school game and you’re seeing a kid with big time offers or a big time player you’re not thinking about it being an issue and it’s not an issue with Will. His confidence really took off this year. He threw a perfect game against our rival at their place. I was coaching third and i’d have to walk across the field to the dugout on the first base side and I’d pass him and give him a fist bump every time and say, ‘Confidence and swagger.’ It popped into my head that game and I’d tell him you have to pitch with some confidence and some swagger. He really did that, especially that night, and it was big for him this year.

Getting to school, what’s the biggest thing he has to work on?

DC: It’s going to be developing his secondary pitches. On a Friday night in high school baseball, he’s going to be able to get hitters out just on his fastball. At South Carolina, his fastball’s got enough run so I think that’ll help him be successful but at the same time to get hitters out on a consistent basis, his changeup’s going to have to stay sharp and he’s going to have to develop his slider and get a lot of confidence in that.

What does he do well that will translate to the college level?

DC: His stature is going to help him; he’s a big kid at 6-foot-1 or 2, about 215 pounds. And being a left-hander, that’s going to give him a shot. Left handed pitching is hard to come by, and if you can get a guy that can run it up to 90 or 91 miles an hour, maybe if he doesn’t get an opportunity to start he can come in as a one or two inning guy and cut that fastball loose one or two nights a week. I think he’ll have some success there.

What do you want people to know about Will?

DC: He’s a great kid from a great family and I’ve been really impressed the past year with his work ethic. The kid got to be a senior, committed to Carolina early. My brief stint in high school baseball, if you get a kid that commits early it can go one of two ways their senior year. When we would take batting practice and doing something to where they were running balls out, he never really took a day off. He’s strict to his throwing program but he’s a great kid with a great work ethic.