Texas A&M baseball gears up for ranked showdown with South Carolina

Texas A&M baseball eyes weekend challenge on the road at South Carolina

As Texas A&M baseball fans all know, life never slows down in the SEC. You travel to Florida, then you host Mississippi State. You eke out a sweep over Auburn, and then you get to play a weekend series in Columbia, South Carolina—home of the 21-7 Gamecocks, currently ranked 22nd in the D1Baseball poll.

The Gamecocks are coming off of a poor midweek showing against Georgia Southern, which they dropped 8-0. Don’t be fooled by that result, though—Carolina boasts a formidable squad this year. Case in point, that was only the second home game they’ve lost all season: their record at Founders Park is 17-2 on the year, including a 3-game sweep of Vanderbilt.

The Aggies rumble into town at 26-3 overall after dismantling the Texas State Bobcats down in San Marcos on Tuesday, 12-2. Led by hitting machine Braden Montgomery, not to mention star sophomore Jace LaViolette and breakout freshman Gavin Grahovac, the Aggies are a difficult squad to face.

A sweep, however, will be a tough ask. This is a Gamecock team that boasts a lot of talent, including maybe the best freshman in the SEC last year, Ethan Petry. You can bet he will be a thorn in the side of the Aggie pitching over the course of the weekend.

If the Aggies can take this series, it will say a lot about this squad. The Gamecocks can play with anyone in the country this year, and won’t be intimidated at all—after all, they did just sweep the last team ranked #3 to come into town.

Overall, this is a chance for the Aggies to take a lead in the all-time series. The Gamecocks currently lead, 11-10, so a 2-1 result in favor of the Maroon and White would tie things up, while a sweep would give the Aggies a 2-game lead.

Ryan Prager gets the Friday night start. First pitch should come just after 6 PM central time. Whatever else happens, one thing is for sure: this will be a great weekend of baseball.