re: Baseball Recruiting Discussion

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Recruiting

-- One of South Carolina’s top 2016 targets, left-handed pitcher Ryne Huggins (Newberry/Newberry) took his visit to North Carolina over the weekend to see the Tar Heels take on Virginia Tech. He went to the game on Saturday night and took a tour of the facility and campus and had a sit-down meeting with the coaching staff on Sunday prior the game. Huggins, who was on the trip with his entire family, left prior to Sunday’s game.

The feedback we received following the visit is that South Carolina has a narrow lead in the race for his commitment. Clemson and North Carolina are running even and are not too far behind the Gamecocks. At one point, Huggins wanted to make a commitment over the summer. It isn’t out of the question he makes a decision sooner than that though.

-- The biggest unofficial visitor to campus this weekend was 2015 left-hander Jared Padgett (Graceville, Fla./Graceville Vocational), who is a two-sport athlete at his high school but wants to focus on baseball at the college level. He’s at least going to make his college decision based on baseball and not football and if something comes up with the school he chooses, he will cross that bridge at that point in time.

Padgett took a two-day visit to South Carolina spending Saturday and Sunday taking the full tour and going to Saturday’s game. He wrapped up the visit on Sunday morning meeting with the coaches before departing back to the Sunshine State. The Gamecocks have offered and do want him to commit. The chief competition is Mississippi State with Florida State and Florida also in the picture. Word is though, he wants to go out of state to play baseball.

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