Gamecocks baseball land commitment from highly-touted in-state prospect

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Gamecocks baseball land commitment from highly-touted in-state prospect​

July 05, 2023

South Carolina baseball landed a big in-state commitment late Tuesday night. Summerville High School outfielder PJ Morlando, a rising senior, committed to Mark Kingston and the Gamecocks for the Class of 2024. He had previously been committed to Mississippi State. Morlando joins Green Wave teammate Carson Messina as Gamecocks commits for the Class of 2024. Both are considered high-level prospects and could be taken in next year’s MLB Draft if they don’t end up at USC. They join other in-state commits for next year’s class including River Bluff’s Beau Hollins, Broome’s Brady James, Clover’s Cade Pilgram and P-27’s Tyler June. The Gamecocks have 13 commits for the Class of 2024. Prospects Live ranks Morlando as the No. 4 high school player in the Class of 2024. “Morlando might be the most physically imposing high school bat in the 2024 class with exceptional bat speed and high contact rates to boot. Morlando has long had the bat speed to out-slug his peers, but it’s his mature approach and willingness to take the walk that has scouts raising eyebrows,” Prospects Live wrote on Morlando.


Morlando, an all-state selection, hit .463 with six home runs and 19 RBI this season for the Green Wave, who advanced to the Class 5A Lower State championship. Morlando will play in the 2023 High-School All American Game on Sunday at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and play in the event’s home run derby. He won the Opterra Solutions HR Derby at River Bluff back in March, hitting 16 homers in the final round (eight on an alumnium bat and eight with a wooden bat). Morlando also just finished training camp with the Major League Baseball and USA Baseball 2023 Prospect Development Pipeline. South Carolina is coming off a 42-21 season in which the Gamecocks ranked as high as No. 3 nationally and reached their first super regional since 2018 before losing to Florida, the eventual College World Series runner-up. That resurgent season followed a 2022 campaign in which USC posted its first losing record since 1996.