Rome Derenzo is widely considered one of the top baseball talents in the state of South Carolina for the 2027 recruiting class.

The rising junior at St. James has been a starting first baseman at the varsity level since he was a freshman, and just as the clock struck midnight on Wednesday night, as soon as coaches were allowed to directly contact players in his class, his phone lit up. On the other end was Clemson assistant Nick Schnabel, and that set off a sequence of events that ended with Derenzo quickly shutting things down.

Derenzo tells The Clemson Insider he is now officially committed to the Tigers after a conversation with head coach Erik Bakich late in the day on Friday.

“I didn’t even know if I was going to get contacted by them or not,” Derenzo also told TCI. “I saw at 12:01 it hit, and I saw coach Schnabel’s number pop up, and I was like, wow. From there, it was just constant contact, and that night I actually committed. Coach Bakich called me. He was fired up.”

Derenzo has grown up rooting for the Tigers, so the opportunity to play for Clemson was quite literally a dream come true.

“This was actually my dream school. My mom went to Clemson. When I was younger, I used to go to football games all the time. But it’s been harder to get up there the past couple of years because of the sports activities.”

And it hasn’t taken long for Derenzo to become overly impressed with Bakich, who just finished up his third season as head coach.

“If I had to give him three words, grinder, competitor and winner,” Derenzo said. “I love coach Bakich. He is awesome.”

Derenzo is also close to Cam Cannarella, who just wrapped up a stellar three-year career for the Tigers and was recently selected in the first round of the MLB Draft by the Miami Marlins.

“One of my best friends is Cam,” Derenzo said. “My dad had an old travel organization, and Cam was on his team. He said it is the time of your life and there is nothing else like it. Cam spoke very highly of the whole staff, and I really trust his opinion.”

The 6-foot-1, 215-pound first baseman was limited to just a handful of games as a sophomore, but lit it up as a freshman, earning All-Region honors. He tied the school record for RBIs, and he was five hits away from setting a new record for a freshman.

While he still has two more years of high school, he’s already imagining taking the field in front of the loyal fanbase at Doug Kingsmore for the very first time.

“My love for it,” Derenzo said. “When I hear the word Clemson, it speaks differently to me. The atmosphere, the fans, the team, everything together makes it awesome.”