Baseball Visits Mississippi State for Three-Game SEC Set: SATURDAY GAME NOW AT 1 PM ET

FOR STARTERS

• Carolina makes the first of two straight SEC trips with a three-game set at Mississippi State from April 4-6.
• Friday’s game will start at 7 p.m. EDT with Saturday and Sunday’s games at 1 and 2 p.m. EDT, respectively.
• 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 Jake McCoy (So. LHP) 2-2, 6.59 ERA, 28.2 IP, 15 BB, 48 SO
Mississippi State Pico Kohn (Jr. LHP) 4-1, 2.66 ERA, 40.2 IP, 7 BB, 61 SO

Saturday
South Carolina Jarvis Evans Jr. (Jr. LHP) 3-0, 3.62 ERA, 32.1 IP, 7 BB, 32 SO
Mississippi State Evan Siary (Jr. RHP) 0-0, 2.45 ERA, 14.2 IP, 4 BB, 18 SO

Sunday
South Carolina TBA
Mississippi State Karson Ligon (Sr. RHP) 2-4, 7.33 ERA, 23.1 IP, 9 BB, 32 SO

SCOUTING MISSISSIPPI STATE

• The Bulldogs defeated Memphis 5-3 on Tuesday night. Ryan McPherson struck out eight in four innings of relief.
• Mississippi State has played Texas, Oklahoma and LSU in the first three conference series. All three teams are ranked in the top 10.
• Noah Sullivan leads the MSU offense with a .358 batting average while Ace Reese has a team-best nine home runs.
• On the mound, Pico Kohn is 4-1 with a 2.66 ERA and 61 strikeouts in 40.2 innings pitched.
• Mississippi State is hitting .301 on the season and has a team ERA of 3.94.
• Chris Lemonis is in his seventh season as head coach at Mississippi State. He led the Bulldogs to the 2021 national championship.

SERIES VS. MISSISSIPPI STATE

• Carolina holds a 42-38 series lead on Mississippi State heading into the weekend series.
• The Gamecocks won 2-of-3 games in Starkville in the team’s last meetings in 2023.
• Ethan Petry drove in four runs and James Hicks struck out four in 2.2 innings to win the series finale, 14-5, on April 1, 2023.
• Mississippi State has a 21-18 career advantage in games in Starkville.

HALL OF HITTING

• Junior Nathan Hall continues to lead the Gamecocks at the plate this season.
• Hall has a .383 batting average, good for seventh in the SEC, to go along with four home runs and 26 RBI.
• Hall is slugging at a .565 clip and is reaching base 46 percent of the time.
• Hall leads the team with nine steals and has added nine doubles.
• In Sunday’s game against Arkansas, Hall led off the game with a home run and had three hits on the day.
• It was the first time a Gamecock led off a game with a home run since Will McGillis in the 2023 Gainesville Super Regional.
• Hall then had three RBI, including a home run in the first inning, on March 25 against North Carolina. 

EVANS REMAINS PERFECT IN 2025

• Junior Jarvis Evans is a perfect 3-0 with a 3.62 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 32.1 innings pitched this season.
• He went six innings in a 4-3 win over the College of Charleston on March 18, striking out five and allowing just one run.
• Evans had a spot start in Sunday’s game against Arkansas, pitching three innings and allowing two runs.
• Evans has the longest outing by innings this season, going seven strong at The Citadel on March 5.
• In the outing vs. Tennessee on March 29, Evans went six solid frames, striking out five and allowing three runs with just one walk.

FOUR HIT CLUB

• Carolina had three hitters with four hits in a game this past weekend against Tennessee (March 28-30).
• On Friday night, both Ethan Petry and Jordan Carrion had four hits against the Volunteers. Carrion was a perfect 4-for-4 on the night.
• Both players tied their career high in hits in a game.
• Then in Saturday’s game, Beau Hollins was a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate.
• Those three join Nathan Hall (vs. Queens) and Will Tippett (vs. Milwaukee) with four-hit games this season.

FROSH AT THE CORNERS

• Freshmen KJ Scobey and Beau Hollins are manning the corners for Carolina this season.
• Scobey had four hits and three runs scored in the series against Oklahoma and added four hits in the Arkansas series.
• Scobey has played in 29 games this season and is hitting .267 with three home runs and 12 RBI. He also has committed just three errors at third base.
• Hollins had four hits in Saturday’s game vs. Tennessee and currently has a .323 batting average with 15 runs scored.
• The duo is joined by fellow freshman Gavin Braland, who had a two-run single in the win over Presbyterian on April 1.

PETRY SHOOTS UP CAREER HOME RUN LIST

• Junior Ethan Petry will enter the Mississippi State series with 52 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 10 home runs away from tying Justin Smoak (2006-08) for the all-time mark.
• Petry had a two-run home run in the third inning in the win over Presbyterian.
• The junior is hitting .370 with eight doubles, a triple, eight home runs and leads the team with 27 RBI.