With the way high-level baseball recruiting is done, when Justin Parker signed on at South Carolina over the summer the bulk of the Gamecocks’ 2022 recruiting class was already built.

He got the chance to recruit a handful of guys in this group, which signed in November, but largely didn’t get the chance to put it together.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t like what they have coming in after this season.

“It’s a good group of kids. They’ve been really productive and they’ve been really productive lately. It’s a group where as early as you sign guys you want to see them continue to perform,” Parker told GamecockCentral.

“We had a lot of those guys who had been committed for a while and showcased really, really well down the stretch this past summer and fall even. You feel good about that and the floor of the group coming in to be able to compete.”

As of right now South Carolina has nine pitchers committed in this group—seven high school prospects and two out of junior college—headlined by JUCO prospect Dylan Eskew and top 150 players out of high school Eli Jerzembeck, Blaise Grove and Austin Williamson.

Parker likes what he’s got coming in to pair with the young arms he’s already been able to work with on campus currently.

“With the youth, from the development standpoint it drives the sustainability of the program to home grow your own arms and make sure those guys spend two, three or four years in your system instead of one and dones,” he said.

Where Parker and recruiting coordinator Chad Caillet’s fingerprints will be more noticed will be in the 2023 classes and beyond, more specifically the 2024 and 2025 classes.

Parker credits the two former assistants in Trip Couch and Skylar Meade for laying the ground work there allowing them to pick up where they left off.

“Just felt like the guys that left, both Trip and Skylar, did such a good job of setting a foundation. We had a really good balance of classes for two or three years out. We’ve kind of picked up the momentum and carried it forward,” “We’re riding a little bit of momentum into the future and like a lot of the recruiting stuff we have going.

Both the 2023 and 2024 classes currently sit in the top 20 nationally with the 2024 class No. 12 in the country by PerfectGame. Those will continue to get fleshed out over the next few years, but Parker likes where the Gamecocks are at in both the short and long term futures.

“Especially 2024 and 2025 those were two classes Chad and I really got to get out ahead of. They’ve already done a good job and built a pretty good foundation of being early and being right on these guys,” he said. “We were able to take that momentum and carry it forward. We feel like we have a good nucleus of the right kids and the right families coming in for the future.”

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