South Carolina baseball starting catcher Colin Burgess enters transfer portal

South Carolina baseball has suffered its biggest loss to the transfer portal so far during the offseason.

Starting catcher Colin Burgess entered his name into the portal Thursday, a source within the baseball program confirmed to The Greenville News. He's the first starter for USC to enter since the end of the frustrating 2022 season, when the Gamecocks went 27-28 and missed the NCAA Tournament.

Burgess has two years of eligibility remaining.

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The Kentucky native has started 53 games, including seven his freshman season in 2020, the past three years, batting .231 with nine home runs and 47 RBIs.

This past season wasn't Burgess' best at the plate as he was returning from offseason labrum surgery, hitting .205 with 31 strikeouts, but where USC will feel his loss is behind the plate.

Burgess is the one of the top defensive catchers in the SEC with a .994 career fielding percentage. In three years, he threw out 27 runners attempting to steal.

Nine players from South Carolina have entered the transfer portal since the end of the season.

Cory Diaz covers the South Carolina Gamecocks for The Greenville News as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his work for all things Gamecocks on Twitter: @CoryDiaz_TGN. Got questions regarding South Carolina athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina baseball catcher Colin Burgess enters transfer portal