All-conference infielder joining Gamecocks as grad transfer
A day after a shortened MLB Draft ended with only two players with ties to South Carolina baseball being picked, coach Mark Kingston and the Gamecocks added its second grad transfer of the offseason.
Infielder Joe Satterfield announced his commitment to USC on Twitter late Friday evening, after spending the first four years of his career at Elon.
In his announcement, Satterfield, a Greenville native, wrote that playing for South Carolina has been a dream of his “since I was a kid,” and he included a picture of himself as a child decked out in Gamecocks gear as proof.
Satterfield comes to Kingston’s program after having a promising 2020 season cut short by the coronavirus pandemic that prematurely ended many seniors’ final campaigns. Through 11 games, he was hitting .343 with a .465 on-base percentage, three RBIs and a home run.
The 6-foot Satterfield entered the 2020 season as a preseason All-CAA pick after earning first-team all-conference honors as a junior. In 2019, he hit .325 with a .438 on-base percentage, driving in 35 runs and scoring 45 more while also hitting 14 doubles. Elon just missed an NCAA tournament berth that year, losing in the conference title game in extra innings.
For his career, Satterfield hit .291 with a .387 on-base percentage in 169 games and 160 starts. He added 97 RBIs in that time, as well as 37 doubles.
Satterfield joins former Charleston Southern pitcher Jaret Bennett in committing to South Carolina this offseason as a grad transfer. And like Bennett, Satterfield said he will pursue his MBA in Columbia.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA voted to grant a year of eligibility back to spring sport athletes, meaning seniors have the option to return to school. But Satterfield wrote in his announcement that he had to make “some very difficult decisions, due to the circumstances this pandemic had on my senior season” to leave Elon.
