Baseball Faces Texas A&M in Thursday-Saturday Series

FOR STARTERS

• Carolina travels to College Station, Texas, for a three-game SEC series at Texas A&M. It’s the first of four Thursday-Saturday series for the Gamecocks.
• Thursday’s game starts at 8 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. CDT) while Friday’s game is at 7 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. CDT). Saturday’s finale starts at 3 p.m. EDT (2 p.m. CDT).
• Thursday’s game will be televised on ESPNU with Lowell Galindo and Gregg Olson on the call. Friday and Saturday’s game 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
Thursday
South Carolina Jake McCoy (So. LHP) 3-3, 6.35 ERA, 34.0 IP, 21 BB, 50 SO
Texas A&M Ryan Prager (R-Jr. LHP) 2-2, 3.52 ERA, 46.0 IP, 13 BB, 42 SO

Friday
South Carolina Matthew Becker (Sr. LHP) 2-2, 6.19 ERA, 32.0 IP, 14 BB, 46 SO
Texas A&M Justin Lamkin (Jr. LHP) 2-3, 3.66 ERA, 46.2 IP, 11 BB, 52 SO

Saturday
South Carolina TBA
Texas A&M Myles Patton (Jr. LHP) 3-3, 3.92 ERA, 43.2 IP, 8 BB, 47 SO

SCOUTING TEXAS A&M

• The Aggies are coming off a 14-1 win at Sam Houston State on Tuesday night. Caden Sorrell and Wyatt Henseler had three hits apiece in the win.
• Terrence Kiel II leads A&M with a .363 batting average while Jace LaViolette has 10 home runs.
• On the mound, Ryan Prager has a 3.52 ERA and 42 strikeouts in eight starts.
• Texas A&M is coming off winning a series at then-no. 1 Tennessee this past weekend.
• Michael Earley is in his first season as head coach at Texas A&M. He was an assistant for the Aggies from 2022-24.

SERIES VS. TEXAS A&M

• Carolina and Texas A&M each have won 12 games in the all-time series.
• The two teams played each other in Columbia in 2023 with the Aggies winning 2-of-3 games.
• The Gamecocks won the series finale, 6-5, as Ethan Petry was 3-for-5 with three RBI and Garrett Gainey pitched the final three innings for the save.
• Carolina is 5-4 all-time in games played against A&M in College Station.

HALL OF HITTING

• Nathan Hall continues to have a stellar junior season for the Gamecocks.
• Hall has a .359 batting average to go along with four home runs and 27 RBI.
• Hall leads the team with 11 steals, which is tied for fifth in the SEC, and has added nine doubles.
• In the game against Arkansas March 23, 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. 

SWEENEY SAVES THE DAY

• Junior Brendan Sweeney struck out four in three perfect innings on Friday night in a 7-3 win over Mississippi State.
• In conference play, Sweeney has 12 strikeouts in eight innings with a 4.50 ERA.
• Overall, Sweeney is tied for fifth in the SEC with five saves in 13 appearances.

KACZMAR CONTINUES TO HIT IN SEC PLAY

• Junior Henry Kaczmar is hitting .412 in 12 SEC games this season.
• The shortstop hit a pair of home runs in Saturday’s game against Mississippi State and now has four on the season.
• Kaczmar is 14-for-34 in conference games and leads the team with 10 RBI in SEC contests.
• Overall, Kaczmar is hitting .293 with 20 RBI and 19 runs scored and has reached base safely in the last 16 games.

FOUR HIT CLUB

• Carolina had three hitters with four hits in a game 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) and Hollins (vs. Mississippi State) 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 33 games this season and is hitting .267 with three home runs and 14 RBI. He also has committed just three errors at third base.
• Hollins had four hits in games against Tennessee and Mississippi State and currently has a .329 batting average with 19 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 Texas A&M series with 53 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 nine home runs away from tying Justin Smoak (2006-08) for the all-time mark.
• Petry had a two-run home run in the second inning in the 13-3 win over USC Upstate on April 8.
• The junior is hitting .361 with eight doubles, a triple, nine home runs and leads the team with 29 RBI.

UP NEXT

• The Gamecocks start a five-game homestand on Tuesday, April 15 when Carolina hosts The Citadel at 6:30 p.m.
• The game will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.