After weeks of poor run production, bouts of bad starting pitching and a few costly defensive miscues, the Texas A&M baseball team has a chance, with 10 games left, to make something happen and jump into the race for one of the eight spots in the Big 12 Tournament.
The conference push begins this weekend when the Aggies (26-19-1, 6-12 Big 12) host the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the first of seven remaining home games this season.
“We’re still very much in the hunt,” said A&M head coach Mark Johnson. “This weekend series is a big one for us. We really need to try and get off on the right foot Friday night and just see what happens from there.”
The Cowboys (29-16, 9-9 Big 12) come into the weekend series booming with confidence, having won five of its last seven games, including an upset 3-2 win over the No. 1 ranked University of Texas.
“If we didn’t win Sunday’s game against (Texas), that would’ve been fine,” said OSU head coach Frank Anderson in an interview with the Daily Oklahoman Newspaper. “When you do win games like that, it gives you a lot of confidence to win the next games because you know you can beat the best.”
OSU won’t be an easy team for the Aggies to overcome, as the squad brings the NCAA home run leader and the Big 12’s most potent offense to Olsen Field. The Cowboys lead the Big 12 with 386 runs scored and average an astounding 8.5 runs per game this year.
The recent power surge by the OSU bats is due in large part to the hitting tandem of senior catcher Jeff Parrish and junior first baseman Adam Carr. Parrish is ranked in the top four in RBI’s (45) and home runs (11), while Carr leads the Big 12 and the NCAA in home runs (17) and RBIs (73).
Carr, a junior college transfer, is enjoying a banner year in his first season with the Cowboys. The junior had a highlight reel series earlier this year that included five homeruns in a two-game series against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The A&M pitchers will need to watch their placement of balls to Carr all weekend long if they hope to cool off the nation’s top hitter.
OSU will send junior pitcher Thomas Cowley (8-3, 2.43 ERA) to the mound Friday to face the Aggie bats. Cowley is coming off a complete game, six-strikeout performance in a 4-3 loss to Texas Friday.
A&M will counter OSU with sophomore pitcher Jason Meyer (5-3, 2.88 ERA) in the hopes that he can find some way to get the Aggies back on track after losing seven of their last 10 conference games.
“This team has never quit this entire season,” Johnson said. “We still have games left to be played and I know that these guys have what it takes. They have been playing so hard lately, but things just haven’t been going our way.”