Series Preview: #4 Texas A&M at Pepperdine

Who: Pepperdine Waves (2-2)

Where: Eddy F. Field Stadium – Malibu, Calif.

When:  Friday 4:00 pm CT (TheW.tv - Pepperdine athletic website)
             Saturday 3:00 pm CT (TheW.tv)
             Sunday 3:00 pm CT (TheW.tv)

Pitching matchups

• Friday: Corbin Martin (RHP, 1-0, 5.40) vs. A.J. Puckett (RHP, 0-1, 4.50)
• Saturday: Kyle Simonds (RHP, 1-0, 3.60) vs. Kiko Garcia (RHP, 1-0, 2.57)
• Sunday: Tyler Ivey (RHP, 1-0, 0.00) vs. Chandler Blanchard (RHP, 1-0, 4.26)
  

Pepperdine players to watch

If you look at the early numbers, Pepperdine doesn't wow you with its team statistics. The Waves are hitting .252 with a slugging percentage of .443 and an on-base percentage of .338. Compare that to Texas A&M's .369 batting average, .598 slugging percentage and .456 on-base average. Still, Pepperdine has some productive veterans at the top of the lineup.

It stats with Jordan Qsar, who has alternated between the leadoff and third spots in the batting order. He's hitting .385 through four games with a combination of power (.692 slugging) and speed. Senior Brad Anderson has played in 122 consecutive games for the Waves and he's the RBI man in the clean-up hole. He's started where he left off last season, hitting .375 with a home run and three extra-base hits through the first week of the season.

Left fielder Brandon Caruso is a three-year starter who earned First Team All-WCC honors as a sophomore in 2015. Despite starting slow during the first weekend against Oakland, Caruso is  a dangerous middle-of-the-order guy who will be one of the most productive offensive players for the Waves when it's all said and done.

Second baseman Chase Lambert is hitting well in the two-hole with a .385 batting average. Junior Aaron Barnett is a three-year starter at catcher who has started in 118 games in the past two seasons. He's a .300+ hitter in the three-hole.

That's a formidable first half of the batting order.

With that said, Pepperdine faced its first high-level opponent of the season on Tuesday against Cal-Northridge and was shut out 3-0, managing only six singles.

On the mound, Pepperdine has been solid with a team ERA of 4.00. After surrendering seven runs in the season-opening loss to Oakland, the pitching staff has given up two, five, and three runs respectively.

A.J. Puckett will take the rubber in the series opener. The junior was a rock-solid weekend starter in 2015, leading the team in strikeouts (81) with a 7-5 record, 4.35 ERA and two complete game shutouts to his credit. However, he scuffled in the 2016 season opener, giving up four runs in six innings of work and receiving the loss.

Kiko Garcia had the best start of last weekend, throwing seven innings and only allowing four hits and a pair of runs in an 8-2 win on Saturday. He's coming into the Texas A&M series with a lot of momentum and confidence.

Another experienced arm on the hill this weekend, junior Chandler Blanchard, will take the ball on Sunday sporting a solid 4.26 ERA and a 1-0 record after closing the door on Oakland and winning the series with a 12-5 victory.   

Texas A&M players to watch

With the A&M baseball team outscoring its opponents 57-7 through the first five games, the question is who NOT to watch. Granted, the level of competition has not been of the highest caliber, but this team does what it's supposed to do — beat teams it's supposed to beat.

In fact, the Aggies are currently on a 35-game non-conference winning streak going back to 2014. That's truly amazing when you think about it, because there has been some quality non-conference competition along the way.

Offensively, seven Aggies are hitting above .300 and five are hitting over .400 for a team hitting .369 overall. J.B. Moss, Hunter Melton and Michael Barash are leading the way, starting all five games and hitting .471, .450, and .429 respectively. And they all have something in common — senior leadership. Junior designated hitter Ronnie Gideon rounds out the .400 club.

This group isn't just slapping singles and getting on base. They are doing it with power, combining for five home runs, 13 extra base hits and 28 RBI in just five games. 

But the offensive production doesn't stop there. Speedy Nick Choruby found himself in the starting lineup with a brisk, cold north wind that compelled Rob Childress to go with a ground ball, speed lineup, and the junior generated five RBI on four hits. Expect to see Choruby earn a start at some point this weekend.

Senior Boomer White is doing everything you expect from a former Big 12 Player of the Year. He's hitting at a .368 clip with a homer, two doubles, three walks and a hit-by-pitch.

The only Aggie hitter to start slow the first week of the season is All-American Nick Banks, who is struggling with a .200 average, and that is a given to change in the near future. Opposing pitchers won't keep the future first-round pick off the base paths for long. 

Keep an eye on junior transfer lefty Joel Davis. Pepperdine will throw a lot of right-handed pitchers this weekend, and Davis hit the ball hard all week despite his .286 average. His line drives will miss fielders eventually, and he'll get a lot of opportunities in this series against the righty-dominant Waves' pitching staff.     

There's not much to say about the Texas A&M pitching staff that we haven't discussed already. It's a talented and deep staff, and it's jumped out to a hot start as expected with an overall team ERA of 1.40. There is work to do, however, especially at the top of the weekend rotation.

Corbin Martin was once again plagued by control and consistency issues in his start against Hofstra on Saturday. Martin worked four dominant innings, but it was a shaky second frame that almost chased him from the game where he gave up a homer, two walks and a hit-by-pitch. He did a masterful job to collect himself to limit the damage to three runs in five innings, but the Aggies will need more consistency from their Friday starter this weekend.

Kyle Simonds also struggled at times in the season opener, bleeding single runs in the early innings and giving up seven hits in five innings of work. He held the rope for the win and it was a solid outing, but he wasn't sharp and Texas A&M will be looking for a more dominant effort in his start on Saturday going up against the red-hot Garcia for Pepperdine.

What can you say about freshman Tyler Ivey who was supposed to be tight and nervous for his first collegiate appearance? Instead, he threw six innings of shutout baseball and surrendered just two hits. He'll start the Sunday game this weekend, but another performance like that and he could move up into the Saturday role quickly.

What's there to say about the bullpen — other than it's thrown a combined 14 innings of action and allowed just one run? And that includes a lot of newcomers and second-tier relievers that probably won't see much playing time once the SEC race begins.

That tells you just how loaded this pitching staff is in 2016.

The Aggies have dominated the competition thus far. But that competition has been somewhat weak and all five games have been in the friendly confines of Olsen Field. That all changes this weekend.

The team heads out to Malibu for its first road trip, so that will be a new experience for the freshmen and newcomers. You hope the players use this time to bond and become closer while also learning how to win without some Olsen magic and 5,000 Aggie fans in support.

This will also be a step up in competition. Pepperdine has historically been one of the best teams in a competitive West Coast Conference. The Waves won the national championship in 1992. More recently, Pepperdine advanced to the Super Regionals in 2014 and won the conference tournament to make the NCAA field in 2015 as a No. 4 seed. 

The Waves have seven starters returning from that solid 32-29 season, and the team was predicted to finish in second place to San Diego in the 2016 WCC race.

Thus, Pepperdine is a good, veteran ball club that is dangerous, especially at home. But, this isn't the dominant Pepperdine program from the 1990s. The Aggies have the talent advantage across the board both at the plate and on the mound. The job for Texas A&M this weekend is to play with composure and play like this is a business trip.

That shouldn't be hard with such a senior-laden group. But this is the first true test of the season, and it's the first time on the road. So, this weekend is a good barometer for where this team is early in the season.

Frankly, the first five games didn't tell us much about this team projecting to SEC play because the competition simply wasn't close to SEC levels. Pepperdine may not be SEC-caliber either, but it is a dangerous team that will challenge the Aggies all three days. If a starting pitcher has a shaky outing, the Waves are more than capable of stealing a game or two in this series.

If Texas A&M plays up to its capabilities, the Aggies have the better team and should win. But, in baseball, the better team doesn't always win.

You have to prove it on the field.