Fresh off a midweek loss against UTSA, the Texas A&M baseball team will face another SEC Tiger team in the form of Missouri in a three-game series, from Thursday, April 13, to Saturday, April 15, at Blue Bell Park.
The Aggies are coming off a tough loss against UTSA where pitching and hitting struggles resulted in a 5-1 loss.
Though the Fightin’ Farmers are 5-7 in conference play, the team kept the Auburn Tigers on a leash last weekend, winning the conference series 2-1. Freshman OF Jace LaViolette was named SEC Freshman of the Week for his efforts in the series, with a total of 10 RBIs and three home runs.
The black and gold are one game back from the maroon and white in conference play, sitting at 4-8. The Tigers have held notable non-conference wins, including over ranked Texas and TCU, but struggle against other SEC teams.
The Aggies and Tigers have matched up a total of 80 times, with A&M historically being the victor with 44 wins. However, their last matchup in 2021 saw Missouri pullout a series win at Columbia, Missouri. A win for the Aggies will help them regain momentum as well as catch-up to LSU, who sit at 7-4, and a win for the Tigers will have them tie with Tennessee, who have a record of 5-7.
The maroon and white will look to junior RHP Nathan Dettmer to kick off the series matchup while coach Jim Schlossnagle will look for two other starters on Friday and Saturday. Dettmer comes into the series, having previously struck out a career-high 11 batters and allowing four runs in the series against Auburn.
Missouri comes into the matchup with three hitters above a .300 batting average, with fifth-year INF Luke Mann hitting .336, freshman C Dalton Bargo averaging .320 and senior OF Ty Wilmsmeyer rounding out with .315. As a team, the Tigers have significantly out-batted their opponents, with an average of .273 against a .215 opponent average.
A&M will come into the contest with only two hitters above the .300 batting average, with junior INF Hunter Haas leading the way with .371 and junior INF Jack Moss averaging .359. The Aggies have cut the batting average close against their matchups so far, hitting for .276 while their adversaries average .264.
The series will kick off on Thursday at 7 p.m. and will air on ESPNU while the last two games will air on SEC ESPN+.
