The No. 21 Texas A&M baseball team looks to stay on a roll after winning four or its last five. while the top-ranked Florida Gators is set to come into College Station for a weekend series at Blue Bell Park. The Aggies, are two games behind Arkansas who lead the SEC West, are in hopes of shortening the gap before their matchup next week.
A&M is coming off an untroubled 18-1 home win over Prairie View A&M on Tuesday. The Aggies (33-12, 11-10 SEC) brought in 10 runs within the first two innings and never looked back. Florida (36-10, 16-5 SEC) is also coming in on an upward trend after claiming a 2-1 series win over Auburn last weekend in Gainesville.
The Aggie offense continues to be led by junior second baseman Michael Helman. He leads the team with a .390 batting average, .571 slugging percentage, along with 32 RBIs. Sophomore outfielder Logan Foster’s .323 AVG and sophomore infielder Braden Shewmake’s .350 batting average and team-leading 40 RBIs.
The Gator offense is led by junior infielder Jonathan India’s .429 batting average through SEC play. Senior catcher JJ Schwarz (.438) and sophomore outfielder Austin Langworthy (.333) has team-leading batting averages. Senior outfielder Nick Horvath led the offense with five RBI through the last five games.
The series opener’s pitching matchup features Florida’s junior right-handed pitcher Brady Singer, Jr. and A&M’s junior right-handed pitcher Mitchell Kilkenny. Singer comes in to College Station with a 2.62 ERA in 72.0 innings pitched, while most recently tallying an additional eight strikeouts at home to Auburn to his career total of 248. Kilkenny’s ERA through 72.0 innings pitched stands at a 2.13 in 9 starts this season.
The Aggies matchup with the Gators is set for Friday evening at Olsen Field in College Station with the first pitch set for 6:30 p.m.