By R.L. Bynum
Jamie Laskofski hasn’t played a game for North Carolina yet, but is already considered the best hitter to change addresses this offseason.
D1 Baseball on Tuesday named the shortstop, who transferred to UNC from William & Mary in June, the No. 1 transfer hitter in the country.
Laskofski, who will be a junior next season, went from a mid-major standout to one of the most coveted names in the transfer portal to a breakout star in the Cape Cod League.
Laskofski hit .355 with a .464 on-base percentage and a .665 slugging percentage last season at William & Mary, adding 13 home runs, 45 RBI and 36 stolen bases. The CAA Player of the Year led the Tribe in runs (65), hits (72) and doubles (12), and ranked 15th nationally in stolen bases while finishing in the top three in the conference in eight offensive categories.
Then he took that production to Cape Cod, widely considered the top summer league in the country, and didn’t miss a beat. Playing for the Brewster Whitecaps, Laskofski hit .323 with a .444 on-base percentage and a .430 slugging percentage in the wooden-bat league, leading the team in OPS across all but one of its 28 games. Baseball America ranked him its No. 58 draft prospect for 2027 off the strength of that summer.
Laskofski played high school ball at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Va., where he set the school record with 106 hits and was a four-time district champion. From there, he headed to William & Mary, where his father, Mike, played for the Tribe from 1994 to 1996, earning two All-CAA selections and setting the school’s single-season on-base percentage record. His mother, Clare, and older sister, Kiera, also attended William & Mary.
Jamie Laskofski said his father put the game in front of him early.
“He put a bat in my hands ever since I can remember,” he told capecodleague.com. Mike coached him through age 13, guiding Little League, all-star and travel teams before stepping back once Jamie’s career progressed.
At William & Mary, Laskofski broke in as a freshman with a .360 batting average, two home runs and 42 RBI, good enough for Second Team All-CAA and CAA All-Rookie honors.
His sophomore leap was dramatic: the average stayed roughly the same, but his power and speed numbers exploded, with his home run total jumping from two to 13 and his stolen bases climbing from 12 to 36.
That breakout, and a belief that he was ready for a higher level of competition, sent him into the transfer portal after the 2026 season.
Several programs pursued him, but UNC’s track record of developing shortstops from mid-major programs into premium draft picks stood out. The recent example is Jake Schaffner, who arrived at UNC after two seasons at North Dakota State and left as a 20th overall pick by the Boston Red Sox. Laskofski met Schaffner during his visit to Chapel Hill.
“That’s the competitive side of me,” Laskofski said. He has pointed to Schaffner’s jump specifically as validation that UNC could do the same for him, calling the two similar players and saying watching what the program did with Schaffner made his choice easy.
Laskofski committed to UNC before his Cape Cod season began.
Laskofski’s game is built on a rare combination for a college shortstop: he gets on base at an elite clip, he hits for power, and he’s one of the most dangerous baserunners in the country. A .464 on-base percentage paired with 36 stolen bases means pitchers can’t simply pitch around him without putting him in scoring position immediately, and a .665 slugging percentage shows he’s not just a slap hitter racking up empty singles.
He’s also a left-handed hitter with a line-drive approach who has shown he can grow into more thump.
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Photo via tribeathletics.com
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