The No. 16 Texas A&M baseball team will look to extend its four-game winning streak when they host Prairie View A&M for the first time in school history Wednesday at Olsen Field.
“I expect us to see a very good baseball team,” A&M Head Coach Rob Childress said. “We are going to have to be ready to play at the level we have played at during the last four games. Every game from here on out is the most important game of the year.”
Throughout the 2009 season, midweek games have been a roller coaster for the Aggies, who have posted a record of 6-4 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
The Aggies, who at the time ranked No. 1 in the nation, dropped their first game of the season to Centenary on Feb. 25.
The next week, the Aggies took back-to-back games from Stephen F. Austin, but dropped back-to-back games to New Mexico the following week.
Inconsistencies have continued as of late when the Aggies were defeated at home by Houston on April 7, but turned around the following week and defeated No. 1 Rice on the road.
“We haven’t been very consistent during the middle of the week,” Childress said. “We are a little disappointed on how we are performing as a whole during mid week games.”
In years past, the Aggies have been successful in midweek games, which has allowed them the opportunity to host regional tournaments at Olsen Field.
During the 2008 season, the Aggies posted a midweek record of 14-2, with one of the two losses being to Rice, which ranked No. 7 at the time.
“We have had the opportunity to host the regional the last two years and that is because we played well in the middle of the week as well as the weekend,” Childress said. “We went over an entire year a few years ago without losing a mid week game. It is something we normally hang our hat on.”
Prairie View A&M is coming into the game after splitting games against Grambling State University this past weekend. The Panthers have an overall record of 18-18 and are in fourth place with a record of 8-12 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
As a team, Prairie View is batting .297 and is ranked No. 22 in the nation in stolen bases with 70.
Texas A&M is batting .290 as a team and has a .386 team on base percentage. Junior pitcher Alex Wilson is No. 2 in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings with 13.74.
The Aggies will resume Big 12 play against Oklahoma State April 25-27. The Cowboys will come to Olsen Field and continue A&M’s 13-game home stand, which ends on May 8 against the University of Texas. The Aggies are currently in second place in the Big 12 conference, one game behind Texas.