One way or another, James Hicks always envisioned a weekend like this.

A top-10 series at Baum-Walker Stadium. A chance to throw crucial innings in one of the best atmospheres in college baseball. The type of games a kid from Conway, Arkansas lives for.

"It means a lot," Hicks said on Thursday. "I've been watching Arkansas play ever since I can remember. I had flags of them up there on the wall. It's definitely one that I've looked forward to all year, and it should be a good one. I'm excited."

But for Hicks, who grew up going to games in Fayetteville, played high school baseball at in-state powerhouse Conway and worked at Arkansas football games for a junior college fundraiser, this homecoming has a twist. He will pitch against the Razorbacks, as No. 6 South Carolina travels to No. 3 Arkansas for a three-game series beginning Friday night.

"It's absolutely huge," Hicks' childhood best friend Will McKenna told GamecockScoop. "Getting to go back and play against the team we grew up watching is absolutely insane. "He'll have all the support from South Carolina watching, and also all his childhood friends will be watching. It'll be awesome."

For a long time, it seemed unlikely Hicks would ever reach a moment like this. He pitched in high school, "always a good athlete growing up," as former high school and JUCO teammate Thomas McNabb re-called, but did not garner national interest. He was a two-way player at that level, one of his more noteworthy hitting exploits coming when he hit a home run off current Arkansas pitcher Zack Morris. Still, there was no home for him in Division I. He went the JUCO route, settling at Crowder College in southwest Missouri.

Close enough for some comforts of home — including regular trips an hour down the road to Fayetteville — but a different world.

"It's kind of in the middle of nowhere," McKenna said. "That was a big decision in it of itself. I was his best friend, I was absolutely rooting for him, but I wasn't sure if he was going to stick with it. But sure enough he stuck it out, and just got better and better and worked super hard."

That hard work became his calling card, spilling over into every aspect of his life. Daily workouts whether he was at Crowder, back home in Arkansas or even on days at the lake with his friends. Anywhere, anytime, trying to find a way to get better.

"I've never seen anyone put in the kind of work that he put in at Crowder," McNabb told GamecockScoop. "He was a pretty skinny kid in high school, and then he went off to Crowder for a year and he was almost unrecognizable because of how much bigger and stronger he had gotten."

It was all self-driven, without no benefits of in-game experience to sharpen himself once COVID canceled the 2020 season. One day at a time, waiting for an opportunity to play again with his newfound strength.

He was a stronger pitcher with more life on his fastball, better command and the work ethic to use it all. He helped pitch Crowder to the NJCAA World Series, allowing two or fewer earned runs in nine out of his 15 starts while logging over 90 innings in 2021. At one stage the Roughriders won 32 games in a row, with Hicks posting a 2.61 ERA in his six starts during the streak.

"He knew he was going to have to eat up a bunch of innings if our team wanted to make it to Grand Junction at the JUCO World Series," McNabb said. "I think he kind of mentally prepared to take on a bunch of innings, and I think it trained him well for him to go to South Carolina and jump into whatever role they needed him in."

In a cruel twist of fate, his chance to pitch at the highest level after transferring to South Carolina went up in smoke almost immediately. After pitching twice for the Gamecocks in February non-conference games, his season ended when he needed Tommy John surgery.

Another setback, but another chance for the hard work he has always thrived on.

"There's some guys that the whole way through they're top dogs and they're always in the spotlight" McKenna said. "But James kind of had the opposite story. He's had the hard route, and he's earned everything he's got."

Not only did he come back better than ever, he made himself into a more flexible version of the pitcher he was at Crowder. Heading into the Arkansas series, Hicks leads South Carolina's pitching staff in appearances with 20, carrying a 3.88 ERA in 46 ⅓ innings. Midweeks, SEC series, starts, relief, outings ranging from a one-batter save in a tight spot at Georgia to a five-inning stint against Clemson, Hicks has pitched in just about every circumstance for a team that has needed every bit of it with injuries chewing into its staff depth.

"I feel great," Hicks said. "Our trainer [Cory Barton], this is his first year here, he does a great job making sure everybody feels great whenever they go out. I feel the best I have, even before Tommy John."

At some point this weekend, perhaps even in a starting role on Saturday with the weekend rotation still up in the air, Hicks will climb the mound in Fayetteville. He will probably look out to the stands, where a substantial cheering section of friends and family will be on hand.

And that whole journey — the JUCO risk, the pandemic, the workouts, the transfer, the surgery — will have officially led him to the very place he grew up watching games from.

"We were just waiting on the time," McNabb said. "We knew it was coming. There's a bunch of people back home, and they'll text you like, 'Are you seeing what James is doing?' And I'll be like, 'yeah man, I've been seeing it for years.' And he's at South Carolina now, so the whole country is able to see what he's doing."

It's finally time.

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