It's unanimous: South Carolina baseball star makes every All-American squad

In 2023, South Carolina baseball outfielder Ethan Petry was a unanimous All-American. Petry was named one of the country's best players by all six major publications (D1Baseball, Perfect Game, Baseball America, the NCBWA, the ABCA, and Collegiate Baseball).

This year, he was joined by one of his teammates.

Following a remarkable 2024 campaign, Gamecock catcher Cole Messina is now a unanimous All-American. Because Collegiate Baseball shut down, there are only five major publications that name All-American squads, and Messina made the cut for all five (D1Baseball, Perfect Game, Baseball America, the NCBWA, and the ABCA).

D1Baseball released their All-American teams on Wednesday, and they were the last domino to fall for Messina's quest for unanimous recognition.

Like all the other publications, D1 named the Gamecock backstop a 2nd team performer. In most of them, he was behind 1st teamer Walker Janek from Sam Houston State. Messina is the first South Carolina baseball catcher to be a unanimous All-American since the list of publications grew to six (and then back down to five this year). Former Gamecocks like Landon Powell and Ryan Bordenick were named All-Americans by multiple publications in a previous era.

Messina also won the Johnny Bench Award and is a finalist for the Buster Posey Award (will be awarded later on Wednesday). Both honors are given to the top catcher in college baseball.

Messina's 2024 season certainly was worthy of the honors he received. On the year, #19 posted an elite .326/.465/.701/1.166 slash line, smacked 41 extra-base hits (21 home runs, 19 doubles, and 1 triple), scored 64 runs, and drove in 71 RBI. He also showed himself to be one of the best defensive catchers in the sport, and he is one of the few players at the position who can run well enough to steal bases.

Because of all that he brings to the table, next month, Messina will hear his name called in the 2024 MLB Draft. He is expected to be selected in the top-3 rounds, and depending on how high he goes, he could forfeit his final year of college eligibility to begin pursuing his dream of playing professional baseball.