Mississippi State lands key transfer from SEC rival
South Carolina Gamecocks right-handed pitcher Brendan Sweeney has signed with the Mississippi State Bulldogs as a transfer, per On3’s Pete Nakos. He spent one season with the Gamecocks.
In the 2025 season, Sweeney made 23 appearances, including one start, and pitched 25.1 innings. During that time, he had an 8.53 ERA with 34 strikeouts and 13 walks. He did that while allowing 32 hits. The one game he started came back in March against North Carolina, and he threw one inning without allowing a run in the outing. Along with that, he had a South Carolina best six saves for the season.
Prior to going to South Carolina, Sweeney pitched for Blinn College. There, he helped win the 2024 NJCAA national championship. In 83.2 innings pitched there, he had an ERA of 4.84 and struck out 67 batters while only walking 19. The majority of that work came as a starting pitcher, and he’d throw three complete games.Sweeney is a native of Oklahoma. There, coming out of high school at Edmond North, he was not ranked as a prospect by Perfect Game.
The 2025 season was a difficult one for South Carolina. The Gamecocks would go just 28-29 overall and 6-24 in SEC play, which was good for 15th in the conference standings. That was in the first year for College World Series champion Paul Mainieri as their head coach.Mississippi State to make it to the NCAA Regional, falling in the Tallahassee Regional.
Since then, Mississippi State brought in Brian O’Connor to be the team’s next head coach. He had previously been the head coach at Virginia since 2004. While there, he won a College World Series championship and made six others. That includes going to the College World Series three times in the last five seasons.Now very active in the Transfer Portal, Mississippi State has largely flipped its roster. The hope is that the Bulldogs will quickly be competitive again in the SEC.
The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.
