Texas A&M Baseball: Alabama preview and how to watch

Alabama pitching

The Crimson Tide come into the weekend winners of their last two SEC series. The Tide knocked off Missouri two games to one last weekend and did the same to Kentucky the previous weekend.

On Thursday night, Alabama will throw junior right hander Sam Finnerty. Opposing batters are hitting .307 against Finnerty with four home runs and 17 earned runs. If the Aggie bats can get a jump on Finnerty early, like they did with Texas’ Nico O’Donnell, they may be able to end game one pretty quickly.

Friday night will feature senior right hander Jake Walters against Aggie ace Mitchell Kilkenny. Walters lead the Tide in virtually every stat both good and bad. Opposing teams are batting .250 against him. Walters has struck out 19 and allowed just 10 hits on the year. He is the pitcher with the least amount of experience on the season, having only made seven appearances, however. Take his numbers with a grain of salt.

Redshirt freshman Garret Rukes will start the rubber match for the Crimson Tide. The starter for Texas A&M is TBA. Rukes is having a very impressive season. He leads all Alabama starting pitchers with a 1.17 ERA, and is holding opposing batters to a .189 batting average.

The Crimson Tide’s team ERA of 4.83 is fourth worst in the conference.