South Carolina baseball signee has chance to pitch 'immediately on the weekend'
Over his coaching career, Danny Hignight has coached 15 draft picks and three big leaguers and has seen what makes those guys tick. He sees a lot of similar traits in South Carolina signee Eli Jerzembeck.
The Gamecocks’ right-handed pitcher commit—fresh off an elite senior season with the Panthers—has all the same qualities with better command at this stage in his career.
“They all had that same competitive spirit. The difference with him is his strike-throwing ability,” Hignight told GamecockCentral.
“We’ve had some guys with plus velocity and plus breaking balls but at the high school level, you just don’t see guys with the ability to fill up the zone that way, especially with their secondary stuff. That’s very unique. I’ve never seen it before.”
Jerzembeck is coming off a dominant senior season. He finished with a perfect 13-0 record with a pair of saves as well.
The South Carolina signee had a 0.42 ERA and struck out 195 while walking 14. Providence also went undefeated and won a state championship.
Because of that, Hignight thinks if Jerzembeck does ultimately make it to campus there’s a chance he could slot into the weekend rotation almost instantly.
“He’s going to pitch immediately on the weekend. He spins a breaking ball at 3100 RPMs. He’s 91 to 93 and will touch six and seven. He’s got a plus changeup. The stuff plays. The biggest adjustment for him will be college hitters. They’re more physical,” he said. “That single that might happen at our level turns into a home run real quick there. He will have zero problems competing and pitching.”
Because of his season and real high-level stuff, Jerzembeck will almost certainly get draft looks next month and might not get to South Carolina.
He very likely could opt to sign a professional deal and begin his professional career, especially if he’s drafted high enough to get his desired signing bonus.
But Hignight hasn’t noticed any difference in Jerzembeck’s approach to dealing with the spotlight on him.
“He was just different without a doubt than the average kid in that situation. It was just, ‘I’m going to go out there and compete and not worry about all that stuff. Just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it,’” Hignight said.
“I don’t think he ever really got caught up in any of that like a lot of guys do. A lot of guys go, ‘Scouts are here I need to throw harder.’ He didn’t do that. He went out to dominate opponents and win games.”
It might be tough to get a guy like Jerzembeck on campus. But if he does ultimately get to campus it will be an immediate boon for the Gamecocks’ pitching staff.
“I don’t know anybody that plays in the big league that when they compete they don’t seem a little bit pissed off. He has that mentality. He’s not a very nice guy when he’s on the rubber,” Hignight said.
“He wants to dominate the hitter. That’s a great quality for any athlete. That’s the quality he has. He’s going to go out there and dominate somebody.”
