South Carolina lands commitment from former Ohio State infielder Henry Kaczmar

Former Ohio State infielder Henry Kaczmar will be moving from the Big Ten into the SEC. He committed to the South Carolina Gamecocks on Tuesday night, being the latest addition for new head coach Paul Mainieri.

Kaczmar will be entering his third season of college baseball after getting his career started in Columbus. The Ohio to South Carolina train continues with him, spending at least the next year in Columbia.

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“Let’s do it in the Garnet and Black!” Kaczmar said in his Instagram post.

The stats from Kaczmar were quite impressive during the 2024 season, finishing with a .322 average. He hit seven home runs, knocked in 39 RBIs, and had an OPS of .953. Both are improvements from his freshman season, showing solid progress.

Kaczmar had a decent year in the field as well, recording 87 putouts and 149 assists. However, there were 12 errors on the resume, something that will occur when getting a lot of ground balls as a shortstop.

Either way, he was named to the All-Big Ten second team for his efforts in 2024. South Carolina will have to feel like some of the fielding can be cleaned up while making another year of progression with the bat in his junior season.

A nice pickup for the Gamecocks in what will be the first season of a new era under Mainieri.

South Carolina loses pitcher to NCAA transfer portal

South Carolina Gamecocks right-handed pitcher Connor McCreery has entered the NCAA transfer portal, according to On3’s Pete Nakos.

In two seasons with the Gamecocks, McCreery made 23 appearances, all of which were out of the bullpen. He has a career ERA of 4.56 in 25.2 innings pitched with 27 strikeouts to 19 walks. He also has a save.

McCreery’s final game of his South Carolina career came on June 1st against NC State. It was a difficult performance for him, only going 0.1 inning and allowing a run to score. That game ended up being the first of two losses that the Gamecocks suffered in the NCAA Regionals.

McCreery has played Summer ball in the Coastal Plain League for Lexington County. There, he pitched nine innings and had a 4.00 ERA. That came in three appearances, all out of the bullpen.

In 2023, Connor McCreery was on the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll.

On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this report