A&M left-hander Ryan Prager earns SEC Pitcher of the Week honors

He has been awesome all year.

And on the final week of the regular season, he finally received conference recognition.

On Monday, Texas A&M left-hander Ryan Prager was named the SEC’s Pitcher of the Week for his role in a brilliant pitchers’ duel against Arkansas on Thursday night at Blue Bell Park.

In a battle that lived up to the hype, No. 18 shined the brightest.

Even still, he departed after seven scoreless with a no-decision as the Aggies and Razorbacks remained scoreless late into the evening, ultimately ending on Ted Burton’s bases-loaded walk-off walk in the 11th.

Even with Arkansas’ ace Hagen Smith performing as advertised, Prager matched him.

Frame for frame.

“It felt as normal. It was just another game,” Prager said early Friday morning. “The outside noise is what it is, but I thought it was great.”

He tossed seven innings, struck out nine and scattered five hits.

With so much of the attention on his counterpart, the Aggie announced his presence early, fanning the first three Hogs he faced to begin the ballgame.

An inning later, he struck out Jayson Jones for his fifth of the night and 100th of the season to become the first A&M arm to reach the century mark since Dustin Saenz (104) in 2021.

That punchout got him out of a tough spot. He pitched around another in the sixth by getting a “routine” 4-3-6 double play.

With his 101st and final pitch of the game, he again fanned Jones and received a rousing ovation from a rain-soaked 6,976 at Blue Bell Park.

“I thought the crowd was elite, and that might even be an understatement,” Prager said. “I don’t know if I could say enough good words about them tonight because, normally, I don’t really hear them. I can’t really tell on the mound, but in the first, I could tell.

“They were with me all night long, and they were with this team all night long.”

All year long, Prager has thrived on the Blue Bell bump.

In eight home starts, he is 6-0 and has allowed just five earned runs in 49.0 innings pitched.

That’s a microscopic home ERA of 0.92.

Indeed, Prager has been awesome all year.

On the whole, he’s 8-1 with a 2.47 ERA with 104 strikeouts against just 13 walks. Opponents are hitting a paltry .207 against him.

And he’s just now getting SEC Pitcher of the Week honors. It is the first such accolade of his career.