South Carolina Baseball: Opening Weekend Rotation Set

South Carolina baseball opens its season this weekend at home at Founder’s Park against the River Hawks of UMass-Lowell. UMass-Lowell is expected to compete for the America East Conference championship this season.

Gamecock Head Coach Mark Kingston announced this week that he and Pitching Coach Justin Parker have elected to go with preseason All-American Will Sanders, 2022 MLB Draft selection Noah Hall, and the returning-from-injury Jack Mahoney.

Sanders, who is on the preseason Golden Spikes Award Watch List, will pitch in game 1 on Friday afternoon at 4:00. Hall, a two-time SEC Pitcher of the Week during the 2022 season, will take the mound for Saturday’s 2:00 first pitch. Mahoney, a 2021 Freshman All-American, is now recovered from Tommy John surgery and will toe the rubber in the Sunday 1:30 matchup. All three games will be available to watch on SECNetwork+ and the ESPN App.

Sanders and Mahoney are both juniors, while Hall is a senior. This will be Sanders’ second consecutive opening day start for the Gamecocks and Hall’s second straight year as a member of the primary starting rotation. All three pitchers are expected to have their velocities sit around 95 miles per hour, and Sanders and Hall have experience pitching deep into games. Mahoney may also see some time as a position player or designated hitter, having done so in 2022 while he recovered from his Tommy John surgery.

Left-handed pitchers Matthew Becker and Jackson Phipps and righties James Hicks and Eli Jerzembeck are among the other pitchers set to compete for the initial mid-week starts beginning with next week’s matchups against Winthrop University and Queens University of Charlotte. Pitchers who do not immediately earn starts can and will still have the opportunity to contribute in a bullpen role.