The Aggies entered the weekend with their bats hitting just about everything in sight, scoring 84 runs in eight games. Then a streaking Alabama team came to town and cooled the bats down considerably.
However, two walk-off hits Friday and Saturday from Jonathan Moroney and Austin Homan gave the No. 2 ranked Aggies their third consecutive SEC series win. Before visiting a dangerous Arkansas team next weekend, A&M hosts UT-Arlington for a mid-week bout Tuesday evening.
Over the weekend, A&M (32-8, 12-6 SEC) saw their lineup go 26-for-98 (.265) against the Alabama pitching staff, which is well below their season average (.331). Even with the down weekend offensively, the Aggies still find themselves best in the league in most hitting categories.
Boomer White continued his SEC-best season from the plate. The league batting average leader went 6-for-12 (.500) from the plate with two doubles and two RBI. Hunter Melton added another RBI to his league best total of 54 and he is currently tied for best in the league with nine home runs. Melton also leads the league in slugging percentage (.658).
The other side of the coin presents the UT-Arlington Mavericks (22-19, 8-10 Sun Belt), who have pounded out a Sun Belt conference best 427 hits this season paced by Brady Cox, who has a .372 batting average this year. He is also tied for first on the team with 32 RBI, sharing the mark with Darien McLemore who knocked in his 100th career RBI over the weekend.
Four of their starters are hitting better than .300 this year and everyone in their lineup has tallied 10 or more RBI. In their win Saturday, the Mavericks scored 18 runs and tattooed 24 hits, their most since 2008. The Mavericks enter the contest having won a weekend series over Troy and currently sit seventh in the Sun Belt.
Aggie pitching failed to preserve leads late in the game on two occasions and the staff got ripped for seven runs on 13 hits Saturday. Head coach Rob Childress decided to shake things up on the mound this week.
Freshman Mitchell Kilkenny will make his first career start on the mound Tuesday night. The righty has taken care of business when called upon. He has a 0.73 ERA in 12.1 innings pitched and has compiled a 2-0 record along the way.
On the Maverick side, right hander Matt Michalski will take the hill. In his last start, the junior worked four innings, allowing four runs on six hits and was pinned with the loss against Dallas Baptist. In 21.2 innings pitched this season, he has allowed 19 earned runs which is good for a 7.89 ERA but has been holding opponents to a .247 batting average.
The Aggies lead the all-time series by a 26-8 margin with the last UTA win coming in 2012. Last year when these two met, A&M grinded out a 4-2 win. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. and the game will air on SEC Network Plus.
