Photo by Abigail Cook, TexAgs
Texas A&M Baseball
Series Preview: #2 Texas A&M vs. #10 LSU
Who: LSU Tigers (15-5, 1-2 SEC)
Where: Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park – College Station, Texas
When: Thursday 6:00 pm CT (SEC Network)
Friday 8:00 pm CT (SEC Network)
Saturday 2:00 pm CT (SEC+)
Jake Fraley was one of the few returning veterans in the lineup and he's one of LSU's leading hitters at .370. In the two-spot, Fraley is getting on-base with 14 walks and a .463 on-base percentage. But the biggest impact at the plate has come from true freshman right fielder Antoine Duplantis, who is leading the team in hitting at .377 with a .448 on-base percentage in the three-hole.
The team as a whole is hitting a solid .306, but the back end of the lineup doesn't have the punch of previous LSU offenses. Sophomore Beau Jordan is the Tigers' cleanup hitter, leading the team in RBI with 19 and a .338 batting average, but only has one home run on the season. In fact, only one LSU starter has more than one long ball and he (Greg Dieschmann) has just two.
While LSU coach Paul Mainieri is trying to mold a new offense with several new pieces, he has a couple of veteran starting weekend pitchers to lean on in 2016.
Alex Lange was the buzz of college baseball as a freshman in 2015, earning All-American honors with a perfect 12-0 record and a 1.97 ERA. He has struggled early in 2016 with a 2-1 record and a surprisingly high 4.50 ERA, but Lange is still dangerous and will find his rhythm at some point this season. A&M fans hope it happens after Easter weekend. He'll start game two of the series on Friday.
Jared Poche has been in the mix for LSU over the past three seasons and he's as experienced as they come, which is why he's the Friday starter (Thursday this week). The lefty from Luther, La. sports a 2-2 record and a quality 2.37 ERA.
Senior transfer pitcher John Valek III from Akron has been the one big pleasant surprise for the Tigers so far this season with a perfect 4-0 record and a salty 2.21 ERA. He's also walked just two batters in almost 29 innings of action this season.
The Tigers are good. They also mark the first ranked opponent for Texas A&M 21 games into the season. With that said, this LSU team has some weak spots in the hitting order and is having depth issues in the back end of the bullpen. If there's a year to beat LSU, this could be that year with the Tgiers rebuilding (by their standards) and the Aggies sitting at No. 2 in the country.
After starting the year off slow, Ryne Birk has come back with a vengeance in the past couple of weeks and is now hitting .353 with 10 extra base hits. He also regained his No. 2 spot in the batting order behind Moss. Boomer White is hitting .407 in the three-hole with a team leading .500 on-base percentage. Hunter Melton rounds out the top four spots in the batting order with a .338 batting average and a team high 26 RBI.
In all, six Texas A&M starters are hitting .338 or higher, and only nine-hole hitter George Janca is under .300.
TexAgs
Key for the Aggies will be whether the starting pitching returns to form, or shows the Auburn series was no aberration.
{"Module":"photo","Alignment":"right","Size":"large","Caption":"Key for the Aggies will be whether the starting pitching returns to form, or shows the Auburn series was no aberration. ","MediaItemID":68111}
Pitching statistics took a beating after the Auburn series. After talking to some observers in Auburn, a combination of a brisk wind blowing out of the park with a consistently small strike zone all weekend led to the high scores from both teams.
Rob Childress has decided to stick with his original weekend rotation of Jace Vines, Tyler Ivey and Kyle Simonds. If the rotation continues to struggle this weekend, then I would expect some changes. But for now, the hope is a north wind and the familiar confines of Olsen Field will settle down the pitching.
Mark Ecker was one of the few pitchers that was effective in Auburn. His fastball was especially lively. Look for him to get the ball earlier in the series. Brigham Hill also showed some effectiveness in relief last week despite giving up a couple of runs. He should figure in significantly this weekend.
But overall, the key matchup is the top of the Aggie batting order against LSU's top starting pitchers. If A&M can get into the Tigers' bullpen early, big advantage to Texas A&M.
While all Aggie eyes will be on the Texas A&M basketball team in the NCAA Tournament this weekend, this is a huge series for the baseball team. The Aggies and Tigers have played competitive games ever since Texas A&M entered the SEC. In the nine regular season SEC games played to date, six were decided by one run.
The two schools played a high-profile series in Baton Rouge last season when LSU was ranked No. 1 and Texas A&M was No. 2. LSU took two out of three, but all three games were nailbiters. The 2016 matchup in College Station is yet another top-10 showdown with the 19-2 Aggies entering the week ranked No. 2 and the Tigers at No. 10 after losing two out of three at home to Alabama.
After opening SEC play on the road against Auburn and winning two games, the pressure is on Texas A&M to hold serve at home, especially with a road series at No. 1 Florida scheduled for the next weekend. A stumble this weekend against the Tigers and the Aggies will have the unenviable task of going to Gainesville needing a series win to stay in the SEC race.
Aside from that, this is LSU. The Tigers are the closest thing Texas A&M has to an SEC rival, and the baseball teams have played competitive, heated contests not only over the past three years in the SEC, but historically going back to the infamous 1989 NCAA regional and the 1993 College World Series.
There's a lot at stake with regard to the 2016 race — and there's a lot at stake when the Aggies and Tigers battle on the diamond.
Where: Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park – College Station, Texas
When: Thursday 6:00 pm CT (SEC Network)
Friday 8:00 pm CT (SEC Network)
Saturday 2:00 pm CT (SEC+)
Pitching matchups
- Friday: Jace Vines (RHP, 3-0, 3.81) vs. Jared Poche (RHP, 2-2, 2.37)
- Saturday: Tyler Ivey (RHP, 2-0, 2.39) vs. Alex Lange (RHP, 2-1, 4.50)
- Sunday: Kyle Simonds (RHP, 4-0, 3.18) vs. John Valek III (RHP, 4-0, 2.20)
LSU players to watch
This is a young Tiger team and it's been trying to find its footing in the early portion of the season. LSU typically fields a deep and talented offense, but after losing most of their starting lineup from 2015 the Tigers aren't as dynamic at the plate in 2016. However, that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous.Jake Fraley was one of the few returning veterans in the lineup and he's one of LSU's leading hitters at .370. In the two-spot, Fraley is getting on-base with 14 walks and a .463 on-base percentage. But the biggest impact at the plate has come from true freshman right fielder Antoine Duplantis, who is leading the team in hitting at .377 with a .448 on-base percentage in the three-hole.
The team as a whole is hitting a solid .306, but the back end of the lineup doesn't have the punch of previous LSU offenses. Sophomore Beau Jordan is the Tigers' cleanup hitter, leading the team in RBI with 19 and a .338 batting average, but only has one home run on the season. In fact, only one LSU starter has more than one long ball and he (Greg Dieschmann) has just two.
He has struggled early in 2016 with a 2-1 record and a surprisingly high 4.50 ERA, but Lange is still dangerous and will find his rhythm at some point this season. A&M fans hope it happens after Easter weekend.
{"Module":"quote","Alignment":"left","Quote":"He has struggled early in 2016 with a 2-1 record and a surprisingly high 4.50 ERA, but Lange is still dangerous and will find his rhythm at some point this season. A\u0026M fans hope it happens after Easter weekend.","Author":""}
However, this team has speed at the top of the order and will try to steal bases. The Tigers have already stolen 38, eight ahead of the Aggies on the basepaths.While LSU coach Paul Mainieri is trying to mold a new offense with several new pieces, he has a couple of veteran starting weekend pitchers to lean on in 2016.
Alex Lange was the buzz of college baseball as a freshman in 2015, earning All-American honors with a perfect 12-0 record and a 1.97 ERA. He has struggled early in 2016 with a 2-1 record and a surprisingly high 4.50 ERA, but Lange is still dangerous and will find his rhythm at some point this season. A&M fans hope it happens after Easter weekend. He'll start game two of the series on Friday.
Jared Poche has been in the mix for LSU over the past three seasons and he's as experienced as they come, which is why he's the Friday starter (Thursday this week). The lefty from Luther, La. sports a 2-2 record and a quality 2.37 ERA.
Senior transfer pitcher John Valek III from Akron has been the one big pleasant surprise for the Tigers so far this season with a perfect 4-0 record and a salty 2.21 ERA. He's also walked just two batters in almost 29 innings of action this season.
The Tigers are good. They also mark the first ranked opponent for Texas A&M 21 games into the season. With that said, this LSU team has some weak spots in the hitting order and is having depth issues in the back end of the bullpen. If there's a year to beat LSU, this could be that year with the Tgiers rebuilding (by their standards) and the Aggies sitting at No. 2 in the country.
Texas A&M players to watch
The top of the batting order is still carrying this team. J.B. Moss continues to lead the team in batting average (.418), slugging percentage (.706) and total bases (56). He's also second in RBI (22) and on-base percentage (.484). The senior has been on fire and has been Texas A&M's most pleasant surprise so far in 2016.After starting the year off slow, Ryne Birk has come back with a vengeance in the past couple of weeks and is now hitting .353 with 10 extra base hits. He also regained his No. 2 spot in the batting order behind Moss. Boomer White is hitting .407 in the three-hole with a team leading .500 on-base percentage. Hunter Melton rounds out the top four spots in the batting order with a .338 batting average and a team high 26 RBI.
In all, six Texas A&M starters are hitting .338 or higher, and only nine-hole hitter George Janca is under .300.
TexAgs
Key for the Aggies will be whether the starting pitching returns to form, or shows the Auburn series was no aberration.
{"Module":"photo","Alignment":"right","Size":"large","Caption":"Key for the Aggies will be whether the starting pitching returns to form, or shows the Auburn series was no aberration. ","MediaItemID":68111}
Rob Childress has decided to stick with his original weekend rotation of Jace Vines, Tyler Ivey and Kyle Simonds. If the rotation continues to struggle this weekend, then I would expect some changes. But for now, the hope is a north wind and the familiar confines of Olsen Field will settle down the pitching.
Mark Ecker was one of the few pitchers that was effective in Auburn. His fastball was especially lively. Look for him to get the ball earlier in the series. Brigham Hill also showed some effectiveness in relief last week despite giving up a couple of runs. He should figure in significantly this weekend.
But overall, the key matchup is the top of the Aggie batting order against LSU's top starting pitchers. If A&M can get into the Tigers' bullpen early, big advantage to Texas A&M.
What's at stake this weekend...
The two schools played a high-profile series in Baton Rouge last season when LSU was ranked No. 1 and Texas A&M was No. 2. LSU took two out of three, but all three games were nailbiters. The 2016 matchup in College Station is yet another top-10 showdown with the 19-2 Aggies entering the week ranked No. 2 and the Tigers at No. 10 after losing two out of three at home to Alabama.
After opening SEC play on the road against Auburn and winning two games, the pressure is on Texas A&M to hold serve at home, especially with a road series at No. 1 Florida scheduled for the next weekend. A stumble this weekend against the Tigers and the Aggies will have the unenviable task of going to Gainesville needing a series win to stay in the SEC race.
Aside from that, this is LSU. The Tigers are the closest thing Texas A&M has to an SEC rival, and the baseball teams have played competitive, heated contests not only over the past three years in the SEC, but historically going back to the infamous 1989 NCAA regional and the 1993 College World Series.
There's a lot at stake with regard to the 2016 race — and there's a lot at stake when the Aggies and Tigers battle on the diamond.
Never miss the latest news from TexAgs!
Join our free email list
