The Lone State Showdown has returned to write another chapter into its storied history – at least in baseball.
No. 3 A&M will play host to arch-rival Texas for a mid-week showdown between the two oldest public institutions in the state. The game is already sold out and Olsen is sure to be rocking come 6:35 Tuesday evening.
“Here in the fourth week, sometimes the Tuesday’s get a bit stale,” A&M coach Rob Childress said. “It certainly won’t be stale come Tuesday night. We will have a great crowd, great energy and it will be a great game.”
The Aggies are riding a 10-game win streak and a 16-game home win streak into the contest. They completed a sweep of Fresno State this last weekend in a series where the pitching looked the best it has all season.
Offensively, A&M (15-1) has been a pitching staff’s worst nightmare. They have outscored opponents 136 to 35 on the season and 99 to 23 when following the third inning. The Aggies currently rank fourth in the country in batting average (.341), eighth in slugging (.522) and 10^th in runs per game (8.5).
Hunter Melton leads the team with 21 RBI, J.B. Moss is second with 15 and overall there are seven Aggies with 10 or more RBI this season.
Walker Pennington got a chance to showcase his skills as well this weekend, as he hit a walk-off double and posted a couple RBI.
As for Texas (7-9), they have had an up-and-down start to 2016. They were swept in a four-game series with California before losing another series this last weekend on the West Coast to UCLA.
This is the first time since 2014 the two rivals have met on the diamond. Their last meeting was a 4-1 Aggie loss during the Houston Regional. For the Aggies who were on that team, the loss still does not sit well with them.
“I don’t think we need any motivational speech for Tuesday,” Moss said. “We have a day off and then we will be ready to come in on Tuesday…we remember [the loss in the regional]. It was heartbreaking for us. It ended our season. Like I said, we don’t need any extra motivation for Tuesday night.”
The Longhorns are led Kacy Clemens and Bret Boswell, each of whom has 11 RBI this season. Watch for the power of potential pinch-hitter Patrick Mathis, who leads the team with three home runs.
On the mound, the Aggies will send out Brigham Hill to start. In his last outing, Hill went five innings, allowing two runs off seven hits while striking out seven against Northwestern State. He is holding hitters to a .233 average with a 0.98 WHIP.
The Longhorns will send out Morgan Cooper, who worked six innings and allowed no runs on just three hits his last outing, a win over Sam Houston State.
First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. and the game will be televised on SEC Network Plus.