South Carolina baseball slugger named top-5 prospect in 2025 MLB Draft

Since the start of the 2018 season, just two South Carolina baseball players have been selected as 1st team All-Americans. One of them is rising Gamecock junior Ethan Petry (the other was his teammate, catcher Cole Messina).

Petry spurned what could have been a nice payday in the MLB Draft to join the USC program ahead of the 2023 campaign. Since then, the high school shortstop and right-handed pitcher moved to third base before settling in as the starting right fielder (with some stops at first base in the meantime) for the Gamecocks.

In his two years wearing garnet and black, his slash line has been a robust .341/.471/.686/1.157, and he has climbed to prominent places on several South Carolina baseball records lists with 44 home runs, 18 doubles, 128 RBI, 112 runs scored, and 116 walks and hit-by-pitches.

Though the 2024 MLB Draft was just last week, Petry's high level of production (and even greater potential) has him firmly on the mind of anyone considering what might happen in next year's draft. It should come as no surprise to Gamecock fans that Petry is considered one of the top MLB Draft prospects in the 2025 draft. In fact, according to a prospect ranking from D1Baseball, Ethan Petry is the #5 college prospect eligible for the 2025 MLB Draft.

In D1Baseball's rankings, Petry is the 3rd position player behind Texas A&M Aggies lefty Jace Laviolette and Oklahoma State Cowboys slugger Nolan Schubart. All three are corner outfield/first base prospects. Right-handed pitcher Tyler Bremner and left-handed pitcher Jamie Arnold also are ranked ahead of Petry.

With prodigious power potential from the right side, a good eye at the plate, an improving profile in right field, and a strong glove at 1st base (in limited opportunities), Petry is an ideal middle-of-the-order prospect, hence the friendly ranking from D1Baseball.

If the projection holds, Petry would become the first South Carolina baseball star picked in the 1st round of the MLB Draft since Carmen Mlodzinski in 2020. Becoming the 5th pick would make Petry the highest-drafted Gamecock since Earl Bass was picked 2nd overall in the 1975 draft. No other player has been picked in the top-5 from USC.