Texas A&M baseball has a big weekend ahead. The Aggies are heading to Oxford to take on the Ole Miss Rebels in their second to last SEC series of the year.
Five SEC West teams enter the weekend within two games of first place. Winning the series would complete two goals. Firstly, the Aggies would gain traction on division leading Mississippi State who are two games ahead of them and secondly create some more separation between themselves and the Rebels. Ole Miss trails the Aggies by three games. Expect this series to be a pitching duel with runs coming at a premium.
The broadcast schedule is as follows: Friday 6: 30 p.m. (SEC Network+), Saturday 6 p.m. (SEC Network) and Sunday 12 p.m. (SEC Network).
- Friday: Brigham Hill (Jr., RHP, 7-3, 2.62 ERA) vs. James McArthur (So., RHP, 3-4, 3.99 ERA)
- Saturday: Corbin Martin (Jr., RHP, 5-3, 3.13 ERA) vs. Ryan Rolison (Fr., LHP, 6-2, 2.19 ERA)
- Sunday: Stephen Kolek (So., RHP, 3-2, 3.31 ERA) vs. David Parkinson (Jr., LHP, 5-3, 3.66 ERA)
Ole Miss offense
Ole Miss has struggled on offense. They have the lowest batting average in the SEC and the second lowest on base percentage. Second baseman Tate Blackman (.301 average, 8 HR, 24 RBI) and third baseman Colby Bortles (.283/9/39) are the primary producers in this offense.
Two other bats to watch out for are those of Tim Rowe (.276/3/19) and Nick Fortes (.315/5/27). The bottom of the order is where the Rebels have suffered the most as the trio of Cooper Johnson, Grae Kessinger, and Kyle Watson are all batting below .200.
Ole Miss’s strategy is for the pitching to excel and for the offense just to do enough to keep the in the game. Recently, they went through a 20-1 stretch in games where the offense supplied at least 4 runs. The offense does not have to be stellar, but just do its job.