Following a disheartening series loss to rival No. 1 Texas, Texas A&M baseball split a doubleheader with No. 2 LSU on Saturday, May 3, holding onto the opportunity to topple its third top-2 opponent in Sunday’s rubber match.

Game 1

Heads turned when redshirt junior left-handed pitcher Ryan Prager decided to forgo his second-round MLB draft selection by the Los Angeles Angels and opted to return to the Aggies last year. 

However, the lights-out dominance he posted in his 2024 campaign has only been seen in flashes this season. Nevertheless, the Dallas native left no doubt on the table, boasting five strikeouts in his tiger-taming efforts and earning the 3-1 win

“The stuff we’ve been working on started to really pick and three pitches were getting strikes,” Prager said. “But we have got to play to win a series day-in and day-out.”

But a baseball battle is fought on two fronts, and it was high time a war was waged with the tip of the Maroon and White bats. A methodical approach would be necessary with such a potent arm in sophomore LHP Kade Anderson on the mound, so it would be up to Prager to buy essential time for the Aggies’ offense.

After working a 0-2 count into a walk, junior shortstop Kaeden Kent became the Fightin’ Farmers’ first run of the night thanks to the red-hot hitting of junior second baseman Ben Royo. What appeared to be a sure flyout was lost by the LSU center fielder, allowing Kent to stroll home uncontested. The Rice transfer has been on a tear in his recent eight-game stretch, including eight RBIs in his Tuesday night performance against Lamar on April 29.

Now with a not-so-comfortable 1-0 lead, it was time for A&M to add insurance runs and make Prager’s job a little easier down into the later frames. Another lead-off walk looked to be the difference maker with the heart of the order due up, but with Anderson playing his best game, the three subsequent strikeouts doomed the Aggies’ offensive advance.

Walks and Prager were two words that rarely went together in a sentence last year, but in the Aggies’ first year under pitching coach Jason Kelly, walks have muddied Prager’s record. But in Game 1 would feature no such luck when his three free passes were all left stranded on base.

Anderson managed to survive through the fourth inning, although it was about as rocky as it could be with the Tigers’ defense having to bail him out of multiple near-disaster situations. And even with the score still sitting at 1-0, the Aggies clung to the hope of sparking some early action in the LSU bullpen as the game pressed on.

The warning track became a home run graveyard for the Bayou Bengals and Fightin’ Farmers alike thanks to constant wind, though it seemed that someone was waiting to rise from the bones and cobwebs. Junior left fielder Jamal George may not have left the yard, but his bat surely woke up with a single to left field that put the Aggies in position for a more commanding lead.

Instead, Anderson was more than ready to answer the call to action, giving his lead-off single a response of three straight strikeouts. The Madisonville, Louisiana native finished his side of Saturday’s pitching duel with 12 strikeouts and a near-complete corralling of the Aggie offense.

George continued his case for a spot as an everyday starter at left field by chasing down two scorching balls down the foul line and has continued to see improvement in his swing. However, the Alabama State transfer would’ve had to be 20-feet tall to snatch a red-hot home run launched directly over the left field wall. 

Another base hit was surrendered shortly after, and with a runner at first and one out, Prager needed to find his groove and give Earley and Co. a tied game going into the bottom of the sixth. A failed bunt attempt and a deep flyout later, the veteran lefty looked to complete one of his best outings of the 2025 season and gave his offense a fighting chance through the final frames.

But such chances are fleeting against a national title contender like LSU, and therefore, strokes of luck need to be cashed in at all opportunities. When a pitch clock violation gave A&M another lead-off baserunner, Anderson’s peak performance appeared to hang in the balance.

And with the rousing cries of Olsen Field echoing across the cloudless skies, Anderson delivered in his most electric fashion, avenging his lead-off woes with yet another trio of strikeouts to hold the contest at a stalemate. 

Prager didn’t hesitate to do the same, but in a much more daring fashion. With a Tiger double flying deep into the left field corner, George scooped up the ball, which eventually found itself in the glove of an awaiting sophomore catcher Bear Harrison, who delivered the exclamation point to Prager’s impressive night when he stomped out a potential go-ahead run to close the inning. 

Neither the energy nor the momentum took a break for the Aggies thanks to a lead-off triple by Royo. Once graduate pinch hitter Hayden Schott sent the Corpus Christi native home, the nearby Parsons’ cannon was the only noise to rival the cheers of 7,768 of the A&M faithful. 

“It’s about staying loose and getting the pitch I like,” Royo said. “But with both of those pitchers, it’s tough stuff.”

In a flash, the Maroon and White had runners at the corners and just one out, and the short relief appearance from junior right-handed pitcher Zac Cowan had reached its end. Looking to a freshman reliever to contain the damage, LSU was in for tough sledding when junior center fielder  Chris Stanfield failed to secure another flyout, leading to the third A&M run of the game.

Freshman LHP Cooper Williams lasted just one pitch before he, too, was sidelined, and the Aggies looked to keep their foot on the gas. An intentional walk gave the Maroon and White a bases-loaded situation with two outs, desperately looking to redshirt sophomore first baseman Blake Binderup to lay down the hammer in the seventh inning. Staring down a 2-2 count, a gutsy pitch caught the edge of the zone, stopping the bleeding for the Tigers.

Holding onto a 3-1 lead, Earley saw it fit to send sophomore RHP Weston Moss to the mound to finish the job for the Aggies and complement Prager’s excellence. The pair has combined to be a deadly duo, one that was instrumental in the toppling of then-No. 2 Arkansas on April 17.

Moss, however, would have to dodge through the heart of the LSU order with two runners on and deliver perhaps his most difficult home performance. A strikeout and a walk painted a base-loaded, two-out picture for Moss, but, ultimately, sophomore LHP Kaiden Wilson needed to close the door.

It took two pitches for Wilson to strand all the LSU baserunners, and with three more outs to take care of, Wilson pumped his chest walking to the dugout, hungry to take game one. When he emerged for a hopefully final stand, Wilson was met quickly with a lead-off baserunner, making the threat of playing through the bottom of the ninth loom over Blue Bell Park.

The lightning lefty didn’t let this blunder dictate the story of his relief appearance, as his arm remained the pen in his Saturday afternoon tale. After two flyouts settled things down, all Wilson needed was his first strikeout of the game to capture the 3-1 Aggies victory.

Game 2

Now in a position to claim the series, A&M put its trust in junior LHP Justin Lamkin in hopes of upsetting its third top-2 ranked opponent of the season. LSU, on the other hand, was pressed to force a rubber match on Sunday. 

Lamkin, the second in a trio of lefty weekend starters, has made a name for himself pitching through traffic and delivering clutch pitches. He needed a plethora of said pitches if he were to down such a prolific offense in LSU and strand as many Tigers as he could.

The Maroon and White offense scored just three runs off of six hits to get the job done in Game 1, but it seemed that they were just a swing away from churning out RBIs. So in Game 2, it was essential to jump on junior RHP Anthony Eyanson early before Lamkin’s night came to an end.

It seemed the end was a sight far in the future when six straight strikes took care of LSU’s second inning attack, giving A&M juice to hop in front first. But Aggies’ strikeout troubles carried over into the second game of the day, dropping batter after batter in similar fashion almost every inning.

Luckily for the Fightin’ Farmers, the strikeout played no favorites when it came to downing potential runs as Lamkin struck out five batters through the first three frames, and the game remained tied at 0-0.

After a quiet Game 1, junior CF Jace LaViolette reached on an error, though a double play ended the chances of his fortune to become the game’s first run. Both Lamkin and Eyanson took turns facing the minimum through their innings of work, effectively locking A&M and LSU into another pitching duel.

The question of who would break the deadlock was on the cusp of being answered in the top of the fifth when Harrison and Binderup worked their way on base, setting the table for freshman LF Terrence Kiel II to tack on his first RBIs of the weekend. A fruitless effort, however, as a questionable called swing stranded both runners on base.

As for LSU, there was no controversy in junior 1B Ethan Frey’s swing, which tacked on the Tigers’ first run of the game. A sac bunt advanced Frey to third, and with that, Lamkin’s time on the mound came to a close as redshirt freshman LHP Caden McCoy came in to hopefully quiet the roar of the Tiger baserunners.

McCoy, typically a midweek depth piece, has risen through the ranks to become one of Earley’s go-to late-inning weekend arms. Though Lamkin’s second earned run was able to scamper home, McCoy made sure the best-case scenario was what was taken into the dugout through six.

“He’s a really tough kid, and he’s really proven himself,” Earley said. “He gave us a chance to win, and he’s made himself one of those guys for our club.”

Needing desperately to get back on track offensively, Royo made sure to thank McCoy’s relief efforts with a cannon-shot home run 391 feet into left field, cutting the LSU lead in half. The Aggies would need more than just a solo shot to pull off an upset; someone else had to step up alongside Royo and McCoy.

“He’s been putting in the work, he’s the same guy on and off the bench,” Earley said. “He is just a hard worker and he’s great.”

Kent’s fielding ability made him a candidate for Game 2 heroics, but down to their last three outs, the Aggies needed some clutch hitting and some “Olsen Magic” to pull the win from under the Tigers. 

To the dismay of the Olsen Field faithful, the final A&M batter went down on strikes, ending the chances of a one-day series win.

The Aggies will look to capture the series against the Tigers in a rubber match at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 4.