Baseball Visits Arkansas For First SEC Road Series

FOR STARTERS

• Carolina plays its first SEC road series of the season when the Gamecocks travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for a three-game set at No. 3 Arkansas.
• Friday’s game is set for 7:30 p.m. EDT with Saturday and Sunday’s games both at 3 p.m. EDT.
• All three games will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.
• All three games also will be on the Gamecock Sports Network presented by Learfield with Derek Scott and Stuart Lake on the call.

PROBABLE PITCHING ROTATION
Friday
South Carolina Brandon Stone (So. RHP) 1-1, 3.42 ERA, 23.2 IP, 5 BB, 26 SO
Arkansas Zach Root (Jr. RHP) 2-1, 4.44 ERA, 24.1 IP, 8 BB, 39 SO

Saturday
South Carolina Jake McCoy (So. LHP) 2-1, 5.25 ERA, 24.0 IP, 11 BB, 44 SO
Arkansas Gabe Gaeckle (So. RHP) 1-0, 5.87 ERA, 23.0 IP, 12 BB, 27 SO

Sunday
South Carolina Dylan Eskew (Sr. RHP) 0-1, 1.77 ERA, 20.1 IP, 16 BB, 22 SO
Arkansas Landon Beidelschies (Jr. LHP) 3-0, 3.80 ERA, 21.1 IP, 5 BB, 22 SO

SCOUTING ARKANSAS

• The Razorbacks won a two-game midweek series with Oral Roberts, winning Tuesday’s game, 4-1, and Wednesday’s contests, 16-0, in seven innings.
• Wehiwa Aloy was 3-for-4 with four RBI in Wednesday’s win. Wehiwa Aloy is hitting .402 with nine home runs and 28 RBI.
• Wehiwa’s brother, Kuhio, leads Arkansas with a .419 batting average and has eight home runs with 35 RBI.
• On the mound, Zach Root is 2-1 with a 4.44 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 24.1 innings pitched.
• Dave Van Horn is in his 23rd season as head coach at Arkansas. He has led the Razorbacks to seven College World Series appearances and three overall SEC titles.
• Paul Maineri and Van Horn have a combined 2,425 wins heading into Friday’s game.

SERIES VS. ARKANSAS

• Arkansas leads the all-time series with Carolina, 47-37, heading into this weekend.
• The two teams splits the four games played last season. Arkansas won the regular-season series in Columbia. The Gamecocks won the middle game, 6-3, as Kennedy Jones had a pair of hits and Matthew Becker earned the win on the mound, striking out two in 2.1 innings.
• Then in the SEC Tournament, Cole Messina’s home run in the ninth inning lifted Carolina to a 6-5 win. Messina drove in five runs while Garrett Gainey earned the win, striking out three in three innings.
• The last meeting in Fayetteville between the two teams was in 2023. Carolina won the middle game, 3-1, behind Jack Mahoney’s six strikeouts in seven shutout innings.

BATS SHINE IN OKLAHOMA SERIES

• Carolina hit .336 in the three games against Oklahoma and are only behind Arkansas in conference batting average after one weekend.
• The Gamecocks had 14 hits in Saturday’s 11-6 win over Oklahoma. Kennedy Jones had three of those hits, including a monster home run.
• Henry Kaczmar led the team with six hits on the weekend. He moved his batting average to .257 on the year.
• Jordan Carrion and Nathan Hall each had hits in all three games. Carrion is now hitting .326 this season with nine RBI. Hall leads the team with a .398 batting average and has a current 12-game hitting streak.

PITCHING STANDS OUT IN OPENING STRETCH

• The South Carolina pitching staff holds a 3.45 ERA with 250 strikeouts in 193 innings pitched after 22 games this season.
• Ten different Gamecocks have a win on the mound while Carolina has seven saves in 22 games in 2025.
• Jake McCoy struck out 12 batters in six innings of work against Clemson on March 1. McCoy was named the Tom Price Award winner, handed out to the MVP of the Clemson series.
• Dylan Eskew allowed just one run on three hits in six innings on Sunday against the Tigers. Eskew now has a 1.77 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 20.1 innings pitched.
• Brandon Stone came in relief on Friday against Morehead State and struck out nine in a season best 5.2 innings pitched.
• Jarvis Evans threw a team-best seven innings, striking out six batters in a 9-1 win over The Citadel. He has a 3.09 ERA and 24 strikeouts this season.
• Tyler Pitzer did not allow a hit in four innings of relief to earn the save against Oklahoma on March 15. 

SCOBEY LOOKING LIKE A VET

• Freshman third baseman KJ Scobey had three hits in Friday’s game against Oklahoma, then belted a solo home run in Saturday’s 11-6 win over the Sooners.
• Scobey had four hits and three runs scored in the series against OU.
• On the season, Scobey is hitting .294 with three home runs, 12 RBI and has committed just two errors at third base. 

PETRY SHOOTS UP CAREER HOME RUN LIST

• Junior Ethan Petry will enter the Arkansas series with 49 home runs at Carolina, which has him in second place on the all-time home run list.
• The Land O’ Lakes, Fla., native had 23 home runs in his freshman season in 2023, then followed that up with 21 his sophomore season.
• Petry has been named to the preseason All-America second team by both D1 Baseball and Perfect Game, the third team by the NCBWA, was named to the Preseason All-SEC first team and is on the Golden Spikes Award Watch List.
• Last season, Petry hit .306 with 21 home runs and 53 RBI while leading the team with 51 walks. He was named to the All-Raleigh Regional team.
• Petry is 13 home runs away from tying Justin Smoak (2006-08) for the all-time mark.
• Petry had a three-run home run, part of a five-run eighth inning, in an 11-7 win over Morehead State on March 7.
• The junior is hitting .377 with seven doubles, a triple, five home runs and leads the team with 22 RBI.