How Vanderbilt baseball coaching staff won over Coastal Carolina transfer Levi Huesman
Levi Huesman was sold on Vanderbilt baseball after getting to know the coaching staff on his visit last week.
On Sunday night, three days after visiting, the Coastal Carolina transfer committed to the Commodores.
The left-handed pitcher decided after his first season with the Chanticleers that Coastal Carolina wasn't the right fit. He entered the transfer portal without a destination in mind.
Most of Vanderbilt's other transfer commits in recent years have had prior connections to the program, whether through considering the Commodores in high school, knowing players on the team or being from Middle Tennessee.
Huseman had no connections to the Commodores. He'd never talked to them during the recruiting process out of high school and the Hanover, Virginia, product doesn't know any Vanderbilt players. But once he visited, coach Tim Corbin and pitching coach Scott Brown made an impression right away.
"The big things for me and my family were just the way Coach Corbin runs the program," Huesman told The Tennessean. "Obviously, he runs a really, really good program. And then you know, Coach Brown obviously is awesome. I think he's going to help me a ton. So I think being able to work with him, it's going to be hard to not get better."
Huesman is the third transfer portal commit for Vanderbilt this offseason, after Air Force right-hander Sawyer Hawks and Samford infielder Jayden Davis. While the prior two should have much more solidified roles right off the bat, where Huesman will slot in is uncertain.
Out of high school, Huesman was considered a top-five rounds draft prospect but slipped to the 17th round due to signability. According to Perfect Game, he was the second-highest ranked pitching recruit to make it to school in 2022 after new Vanderbilt teammate Andrew Dutkanych IV.
But he struggled as a freshman, putting up a 9.36 ERA with 28 walks and 13 hit batters in 33⅔ innings. That made the Commodores' track record of developing pitchers especially appealing. Vanderbilt has produced seven first-round pitchers in the past 10 seasons and nearly every arm to come through the program in that time has been drafted.
Huesman said his command struggles were due in part to some mechanical issues he needs to fix.
The talent is still there for Huesman, who can reach 95 mph with his fastball and has a bat-missing slider. His current style is to pitch backwards by working off his slider first, then coming back with the fastball later in counts. But with the help of Brown, he hopes to figure out exactly what style works best for him.
If he can throw more strikes and regain consistency on the mound, he could prove to be a transfer portal steal.
"I think (my goal is to) just kind of get back to the best version of myself on the mound," Huesman said. "And obviously, it's a goal to go to Omaha, pitch in Omaha, go win that."
TRANSFER PORTAL STRATEGY How Vanderbilt baseball gained more than it lost in transfer portal 2023
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why transfer commit Levi Huesman chose Vanderbilt baseball
