Jake McCoy named to SEC Baseball Community Service Team
South Carolina left-handed pitcher Jake McCoy has been named to the SEC Baseball Community Service Team, the league office announced on Wednesday afternoon.
Since joining the Gamecocks in 2024, McCoy has been involved in many community service projects in the Columbia area. He helped with the team when the Screaming Eagles came to Founders Park to play a game in the fall. He helped with the Build-a-Bike for a Child project this past Christmas. He donated to the SAAC Drive this year and helped with Gamecock baseball’s annual Ladies Clinic in February.
Starting this season, McCoy partnered with Purple Heart Homes, a veteran charity that provides housing assistance to disabled and aging veterans. With their help, he was able to start a fundraiser called “Strikeouts for Veterans.”
Purple Heart Homes was initially co-founded by Iraq War veterans Dale Beatty and John Gallina in 2008. They had one common goal in mind for this organization: to honor and support veterans by ensuring they have safe, accessible homes. For McCoy, it’s been nothing short of incredible working with the organization as he looks to bring awareness to a great cause.
“One of the things they do is they help acclimate people from being in service to coming home. And a lot of people have PTSD, and some obviously, they’re wounded. So it’s hard for them to transfer back. They either get put in apartment buildings or government homes and stuff like that,” McCoy told GamecockCentral in February. “That’s not what is right for them. They deserve to have their own space, their own home. … That’s such a huge thing for me. And I think everybody deserves to have that, and I think it’s awesome for them to have that chance.”
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Make a donation to Purple Heart Homes to support the veterans!
For every strikeout McCoy has recorded, he’s donated $23, which represents his jersey number, to Purple Heart Homes. So far this year, he’s struck out 76 batters in 55.0 innings of work. In total, he’s raised more than $7,400 with an end goal of $23,000.
Ultimately, McCoy’s goal is for this fundraiser to become a yearly event. Though this is his first year doing something like this, he would like to keep it going for the rest of his baseball career, however long he continues to pitch.
“I want to be humble. I want to give back,” McCoy said. “That’s the biggest thing. That’s the big message I want to do. And I don’t think a lot of people really give back enough, if that makes sense. So I think this is just a small way I can help.”
McCoy and South Carolina will close out the regular season with a three-game series against No. 1 LSU starting Thursday night. First pitch is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network.
