Left-handed pitcher Charlie McDaniel treated his college recruitment for baseball like gathering materials for a research paper.
He used a list of college coaches' email addresses and kept calling until somebody answered.
That persistence is part of how McDaniel ended up at Presbyterian College. Instead of riding a hyper wave of prospect chatter, he built his recruitment on relationships, timing and following up with a handful of coaches who believed in him.
“That was another learning experience of kind of getting out of my comfort zone,” McDaniel said. “Picking up the phone and calling a college coach who I want the opportunity to play with, and it helped me to mature as a player, but also off the field.”
McDaniel's recruitment research began his sophomore year at Seminole High School in Sanford Florida, but not the way it does for most future draft picks. Rather than waiting for coaches to find him, he reached out directly and pushed himself into conversations.
Those conversations and a short camp assessment eventually led him to Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina.
While attending a camp in Nashville, one of the instructors that week happened to be a Presbyterian College coach. The two built a rapport, though nothing came of it immediately.
“I went because I had some family up there,” McDaniel said. “I didn’t even look as much at it as like a recruiting opportunity as it was a development opportunity.”
A year later, everything clicked into place at a tournament in Hoover, Alabama, near the end of the summer before his senior year. McDaniel ran into the same coach he met in Nashville again.
By then he'd added strength and size, and the coach liked what he saw enough to invite him for a visit that August. Presbyterian turned out to be the only program that extended him a genuine offer and McDaniel has never second-guessed the decision to take it.
"I don't regret one bit going there," McDaniel said. “I had a great experience of four years at Presbyterian and I’m super thankful for those coaches, teammates and everybody.”
The Presbyterian years weren't just about McDaniel's own development, either. His younger brother, Mason, also a pitcher, joined him on the roster in 2023.
When Mason went through his own recruiting process, the family made a point of stepping back, wanting Mason to choose a school for his own reasons rather than simply following his older brother. It turned out Mason wanted Presbyterian just as much as Charlie wanted him there, and the two spent a season pitching for the same staff, McDaniel's junior year overlapping with his brother's freshman season.
Growing up, the McDaniel brothers pushed each other constantly with competitive driveway basketball games and backyard catch sessions that turned into arguments over who got to "close out" the imaginary game. Their spurts as youth teammates and then in college built a strong bond.
“Whenever we were on the same team, it was always super fun because it was competitive but not really competitive between the two of us,” McDaniel said. “It was more like we wanted to see the best out of each other. Being able to have that family member around you all the time is just an awesome experience.”
On the field, McDaniel's numbers built steadily rather than spectacularly through his first three seasons. A handful of mechanical and mental adjustments in his senior season started to pay off. A few of his teammates were getting scouted heavily, but they also were glancing at McDaniel.
As that spring unfolded, professional scouts started calling more frequently and what had once felt like a distant possibility began to feel real. McDaniel entered the 2024 draft with no illusions about where he might go, and little sense of what to expect. When the San Francisco Giants finally called in the 18th round, they were candid that they already knew who their next two picks would be, but they still wanted him.
McDaniel didn't hesitate, snagging the chance to keep playing and to prove he could get better inside a professional organization.
He proved his college impact by setting Presbyterian’s program record with 56 career starts and was named First-Team All-Big South his senior season. Now, he’s researching new ways to have an impact in the Giants organization.
“I didn’t know what the opportunity would look like to get into pro ball, but I knew I just wanted a chance to be able to continue playing the game,” McDaniel said.