Following South Carolina’s sweep of the Greenville Regional this past weekend, the New York Mets selected two Gamecocks — pitcher Adam Hill and outfielder Carlos Cortes — on Tuesday afternoon in the MLB Draft.
The pair of current Gamecocks can potentially be teammates again in familiar territory. The single-A affiliate of the Mets, the Columbia Fireflies, is conveniently located near Founders Park at Spirit Communications Park.
Hill, a 21-year-old native of Anderson, South Carolina, was originally selected by the San Diego Padres late in the 39th round of the 2015 Draft. Despite earning many accolades during his high school career, including back-to-back state titles in 2014 and 2015 and being ranked as the No. 3 high school prospect in the Palmetto State by Diamond Prospects, he chose to become a Gamecock and pursue a degree in sport and entertainment management.
He most recently started in the opening game of the Greenville Regional on June 1 against the Ohio State Buckeyes. He allowed a run, four hits and only six strikeouts in four innings played. This season, he has a 7-5 record, 3.99 ERA and 98 strikeouts over 79 innings.
New York opted to select Cortes for the second time during his career on Tuesday, having previously drafted the 20-year-old sophomore criminology and criminal justice student out of Lake Howell High School (Oveido, Florida) in the 20th round in 2016.
Over the course of his two years at South Carolina, Cortes was named to the All-Freshman and All-SEC Tournament teams in 2017, the Greenville Regional All-Tournament Team and the preseason All-SEC second team in 2018. He is the Gamecocks' leader in home runs scored this season (15) and has scored 51 runs over his collegiate career with an on-base percentage of .379.
On top of Hill and Cortes being selected by New York, additional prospects out of South Carolina were selected by the Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Phillies. Pitcher Cody Morris went in the seventh round at 223rd overall and infielder Madison Stokes in the 10th round at 287th overall.