By Sinderella
We are one day away from Opening Day, so it's a perfect time to hand out some preseason awards to the 2025 South Carolina Gamecocks. Let's not beat around the bush and just hop right into it.
Best Position Player:
I don't think I have to take a crazy guess to get this or the another award, that I will hand out later, correct. It's obviously Ethan Petry, who is one of the greatest players to ever play at South Carolina, and will be a 1st round selection in next year's MLB Draft along with many accolades he will win this season.
Winner: Ethan Petry
Best Starting Pitcher:
Last season was an up and down season for Dylan Eskew. He would have starts where he would be dominant for 4-5 innings and then get hit around. It seems like new pitching coach, Terry Rooney, is connecting well with the pitchers, and Eskew is one of them. He taught Eskew a cutter which is great with the movement he gets on his pitches. I believe Eskew takes that next step and will be the best starting pitcher this season.
Winner: Dylan Eskew
Best Relief Pitcher:
Coming from Blinn College where he didn't particularly dominate, Brendan Sweeney has performed well during preseason play. This South Carolina pitching staff doesn't have overpowering stuff as a whole, but one of the guys that does is Sweeney, and he has used that to work himself into the closer job. I personally have a strong belief that he is going to be a great bullpen pitcher for the Gamecocks this season, and that's why he wins best relief pitcher.
Winner: Branden Sweeney
Most Surprising Player:
When Caleb Jones announced on Twitter that he committed, no one knew who he was and if it was real. The reason why was because he committed to South Carolina just a few hours after Mark Kingston was officially fired. Truly was a weird occurrence, but that's college baseball for you. At Winthrop, it didn't look good on paper with his best year being a 5+ ERA, but the staff saw some traits they really liked. Remember, Garrett Gainey came in with a 7+ ERA from Liberty and ended up as the Gamecocks best pitcher overall last season. I don't expect the same All-SEC year from Caleb, but I do expect him to be a much bigger part of the bullpen than most think. He wins this award for me.
Winner: Caleb Jones
Clutch Player:
Last year the preseason choice was Cole Messina, and boy, did he prove me right? This season, I think that the winner will be someone who has turned the corner and has really gotten after it in all aspects of the game. He was solid last year, but he wants to be special this year. That someone for me is Kennedy Jones. During the preseason, Jones has been one of the best players on and off the field. He's improved in all aspects and looks to be the dominant running mate to Ethan Petry we expected he would be last season.
Winner: Kennedy Jones
Comeback Player:
There aren't many options for comeback player since the team only returns 14 players from last year's squad, and most were healthy, but I think the player who wins this award is probably the best choice even if the situation was different. Eli Jerzembeck's freshman season was cut short due to Tommy John surgery. He would miss all of the 2024 season as well. Coming into 2025, he was expected to be the Friday guy, but it hasn't worked out so far. I believe, if he can figure out what's going wrong, that he will thrive again and show why he was so highly touted coming out of high school.
Winner: Eli Jerzembeck
Most Improved:
There were few options I thought of here: Kennedy Jones, Roman Kimball, Will Tippett, and a few others. The guy I landed on was Talmadge LeCroy. You can almost copy and paste what I wrote about Kennedy Jones and insert it here for Talmadge LeCroy. He's turned the corner not only on the field, but mentally as well. He looks like a different guy this year, and I expect a big year out of the new starting catcher.
Winner: Talmadge LeCroy
Best Transfer:
There are a lot of players that can be inserted into this award, but I am going to go with the cream of the crop from the transfer class: SS Henry Kaczmar. Kaczmar is a highly touted SS who turned down multiple teams wanting to draft him during day 2 of the MLB draft last season so he could come to South Carolina. That's not something you hear about that often. I expect Henry to have a big year and be that dominant SS like Braylen Wimmer was a few years back.
Winner: Henry Kaczmar
Best Freshman:
There is not much competition this season for best freshman as their usually is because of Mainieri bringing in a lot of older talent during the preseason. So, with that being said, I am going to pick the one freshman on the team we know for sure will see consistent time on the field in highly-touted KJ Scobey. Scobey will open the season as the starting 3B, something that is very impressive for any freshman in the SEC.
Winner: KJ Scobey
MVP:
Again, let's keep it short and sweet, the MVP for the 2025 South Carolina Gamecocks will be Ethan Petry just as it was the past 2 seasons.
Winner: Ethan Petry
That wraps up the 2025 South Carolina Gamecocks baseball preseason award show! Come back tomorrow for my official schedule breakdown, W-L prediction, and postseason prediction.
(All photographs courtesy of Gamecock Athletics)
Comments