Transfer righty Cullen Horowicz looking to develop into 'a dominant SEC arm' at South Carolina

By now, Cullen Horowicz knows what his capabilities as a hitter are. With consistent at-bats, he could probably hit double-digit home runs, but he could also probably strike out 100 times.

At 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, there’s always been a lot of power in Horowicz’s bat. But in his first three years of college, that power wavered at times while the strikeouts added up. In 2024, his first season at Samford, he hit .270 with five homers but also struck out 32 times in 63 at-bats.

With not much going right for him at the plate, Samford head coach Tony David came up with an idea to see if something could change. He wanted him to try pitching. Keep in mind, Horowicz had never pitched in college before. So this was a whole new ballgame for him.

“Over the summer, I threw my first bullpen. I was like, 89-90 (miles per hour),” Horowicz told GamecockCentral. “I was like, you know what? Maybe this is something I should look into, just because doing that without working at it at all, or preparing, it’s a good baseline, I guess you could say.”

As Horowicz started to throw more consistently, his velocity started to increase as he reached 95 miles per hour halfway through the summer. Even if he didn’t have any other pitches besides a fastball at the time, there was something there that he had discovered.

Keep up with all things Gamecocks for just $1 for 7 days—lock in this special offer today!

Over a year later, Horowicz is no longer hitting and now only focused on pitching. It’s still very much a work in progress for the right-hander, but he’s shown enough potential for his new team, South Carolina, to take a chance on him.

“The recruiting process was awesome,” said Horowicz, who committed on June 1. “I was able to get on the phone with Coach Mainieri a couple times. … To get a call from him, it was pretty special. It’s not every day you get to talk to somebody like that. So I had a lot of respect for that, and I was honestly kind of baffled when he called me. I felt like I was at a loss for words. I was fan-girling a little bit.

“But no, I think the big thing with them is just their vision for the program is something that seems so they were very confident in, and they believe very strongly in. That’s very important to me, just knowing the goals that they have, and the fact that I can come in and be a part of it, and we can turn South Carolina into the dominant program that it was before.”

Joining what will be a revamped pitching staff, Horowicz comes in as one of the hardest throwers that South Carolina brought in. He’s frequently throwing in the mid to upper 90s, even reaching 99 miles per hour.

How has he been able to build up his velocity in such a short amount of time? Besides the obvious reason being training, Horowicz would watch MLB pitchers like Ben Joyce and Mason Miller, who both have a similar size and frame to him, and look at what makes them successful.

As a now-former two-way player, Horowicz used to play both corner infield spots as well as in the outfield, which he said made the transition to pitching much more seamless.

“Halfway through that last summer, I changed my stance and my setup a little bit to try to get myself in the same position, as it’s like throwing from the outfield. And that helped me a lot in terms of the movement of it,” he said. “I’ve always been a really strong guy. I’ve always had a lot of rotational power, but it was just a matter of getting my body into the right positions at the right time, like the sequencing of it, and that’s what allows you to throw hard without really having to try to throw hard.”

Despite his high velocity, the in-game results have taken some time to come consistently. In 2025, he struck out 20 batters and walked nine in 10.1 innings at Samford. He also pitched to an 8.71 ERA and gave up four home runs.

READ HERE: Analyzing impact of South Carolina’s first batch of transfer commits

This summer, though, Horowicz logged some more innings with the Trenton Thunder in the MLB Draft League and fared a lot better. He didn’t allow a run in four appearances, pitching exclusively in the late innings. He’s now incorporated two more pitches, a sinker and a slider, but he still wants to add more to his arsenal when he arrives on campus at South Carolina.

“The one thing that helped me a lot towards the end of the spring and then into the summer was the sinker,” Horowicz said. “That’s something like that gives me the ability to throw something that dives away to lefties, and I can come into righties so that they’re not just sitting over the plate where they can hit that slider away and hit the fastball up.”

Heading into the fall, Horowicz’s goal is to develop into “a dominant SEC arm” ahead of next season. South Carolina views him as a pitcher who could be used at the backend of the bullpen. Regardless of what his role becomes, he’s ready to help however necessary.

“I’m not going to say I have to be a closer, or I have to be a backend guy,” he said. “If I go there and they say, ‘We want you to start,’ and they want me to ramp up for that, I’ll do that. I have zero problem with that.”

While pitching is still relatively new for him, Horowicz believes the sky is the limit in terms of his development. He feels pairing up with pitching coach Terry Rooney will be beneficial. But ultimately, his tools and work ethic are factors that he sees making a big difference with the Gamecocks.

“For me, because I’m so new to it, I just thought a lot more about the fact that I’m athletic, I’m big, I’m strong. That’s how I’ve gotten here,” Horowicz said. “So I’m not going to try to be like anyone else, or be like these guys that have pitched forever, because it’s just different for me.”

Discuss South Carolina baseball on The Insiders Forum!