Aggies searching for offensive spark as SEC stretch run approaches

“Building momentum” is a term that gets thrown around in sports when a team or a player gradually seems to be performing better and better. In the case of the Aggie baseball team, there really has been no building of momentum. They have either had it or they haven’t. While pitching and defense (good or bad) bring that feeling in a more periodic, inning-by-inning way, a hot offense has the ability to spark the team’s overall confidence and ignite them in a completely different way.

The Aggies are a top ten team in the country right now, but their lack of hitting has caused many to worry about the stretch run. Why? Because despite their ability to still win games, the offense is struggling. Pitching is carrying this team and giving them the opportunity to win, but it’s hard to feel true momentum from pitching. Pitching doesn’t get the bubbles going and pitching doesn’t get runs across the board. Offense does. The Aggie baseball team is in a great position to make an Omaha run, but for that to happen, the offense needs to catch fire again as the back half of the season starts.

The season started out with so much optimism. The offensive depth along with the arsenal of talented arms led many to believe that this once-unranked team was definitely coming in under the radar. They were. A sweep of Baylor, TCU, and Houston in the Shriners College Classic lifted the Aggies onto the national scene.

Elisa Schmitt, TexAgs

Johnathan Ducoff has often been the spark to ignite the Aggie offense in 2019.

Then, the ups and downs began. The offense went cold. Braden Shewmake, Logan Foster and Hunter Coleman, all successful veterans, weren’t producing at all, and the star-studded pitching staff was keeping the team afloat.

Then came Johnathan Ducoff on Saturday, March 16th. With the offense hitting a collective .235 and going 2 for 22 with RISP in the Vandy series, there wasn’t a hint of offensive life on the Aggies’ side. A Ducoff pinch hit RBI followed by his walk-off single an inning later would lead the Aggies to a game two and eventual series win over then top ranked Vanderbilt. Cue the momentum.

In the six games that followed that win, Shewmake was hitting close to .500, Ducoff hitting .333, and a staggering offensive performance of 12 hits and 9 runs a game. The Aggies would go beat the brakes off of Kentucky for three games, push a series vs. Missouri 1-1-1 (an odd weekend marked by three freak injuries), and then go put on a hitting display in Austin en route to a victory over the Longhorns.

But then came another dip, primarily because of a new round of offensive struggles. The Ags went 1-2 in Baton Rouge, blowing a lead in game one, almost blowing an even bigger lead in game two, and getting thumped in game three. They followed that up with a 5-3 home loss to Texas State. Over that four-game stretch, the offense hit .218 and averaged 3.25 runs a game, a completely different unit from the one knocking the ball around the park in the previous stretch.

So where is the momentum now? To be quite frank, even after a series win vs #19 Auburn, it’s nowhere to be found from an offensive perspective. The Aggies followed up a great weekend with gross loss to Houston, falling 4-1 and getting just two hits. That won’t cut it. Whatever energy might have been reestablished against Auburn was shot dead in its tracks.

Players often say that hitting is contagious. Once it gets going, it ripples throughout the lineup as guys start feeling confident and swinging free. While I believe that to be the case, I can’t say that I have ever seen an offense ride the highs and lows quite like the Aggies are doing right now.

One of the beauties of baseball is the short turn around. It allows a team to come right back and either change the narrative or keep the same one going. In the Aggies’ case, they want to change it. The South Carolina series gives them the chance to wash Tuesday’s loss and turn another corner.

It’s fair to acknowledge the ability of this team to find ways to win, which is a rare intangible. They have managed to stay near the top of both the SEC standings as well as the national polls. You can’t deny wins, and they continue to rack them up when it counts.

Still, there’s no question that building momentum on offense can make a world of difference as the postseason approaches. No team can bank on consistently winning 2-1 games in the SEC, never mind a super regional. So look for that big offensive inning sometime this weekend. Look for a spark. And if we get it, every other team needs to watch out. The Texas A&M Aggies really do have the ability to be the last team standing come June.