Shota Fogus, a hard-throwing Bishop O’Connell High School right-handed pitcher, has made a verbal commitment to play Division I baseball at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
Fogus is a junior at O’Connell and is expected to be one of the Knights’ top pitchers during the upcoming 2025 spring season. He’s also a standout pitcher on one of the Stars summer and fall travel baseball teams, playing for head coach Kam Smith this fall.
“The College of Charleston is the right place for me,” said Fogus, who also had offers from the College of William and Mary and the University of Richmond.
As a sophomore last spring, Fogus pitched 232/3 innings for O’Connell with 26 strikeouts, a 2.96 earned run average and he allowed just one extra base hit.
This summer, Fogus was a member of the North All-Stars high-school baseball team that won the gold medal at the annual Commonwealth Games at Liberty University. With a fastball clocked in the 90 mph range, he threw three scoreless innings in relief with three strikeouts during the games.
The College of Charleston team finished 41-14 last season under head coach Chad Holbrook, 21-5 in conference play.
Samantha Gjormand, a graduate of Vienna’s James Madison High School, is the director of baseball operations and executive assistant to the head coach at the College of Charleston.
The team was the regular-season Coastal Athletic Association champion in 2022 and 2024.