Photo by Abigail Cook, TexAgs
Texas A&M Baseball
Series Preview: #6 Texas A&M at #2 Mississippi State
Who: Mississippi State Bulldogs (24-9-1, 8-4 SEC)
Where: Dudy-Noble Field – Starkville, Miss.
When: Friday 6:30 pm CT (SEC+)
Saturday 2:00 pm CT (SEC+)
Sunday 1:30 pm CT (SEC+)
For anybody who thinks this was a lucky weekend, look back at the past four three-game series against No. 10 Oregon, No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 11 Ole Miss, and No. 1 Florida. The Bulldogs won every series against top-10 competition. In fact, MSU is the only team to win every SEC series so far this season.
And the Bulldogs have done it partly without their best hitter, Jacob Robson, who hurt his hand against Ole Miss and is expected to miss the Texas A&M series. But head coach John Cohen inserted freshman phenom Jake Mangum in the lineup and MSU hasn't missed a beat. Mangum has taken over for Robson in the leadoff spot and is hitting a team-leading .427 with a very salty .494 on-base percentage. Last week he earned SEC Player of the Week honors, hitting .556 against UT-Martin and Florida.
After Mangum in the leadoff spot, MSU follows with freshman Elih Marrero (.303) and Nathaniel Lowe (.328) who are solid on-base guys — and they get on-base for the dangerous clean-up hitter Reid Humphreys, who is hitting .350 with a team-leading 28 RBI and .602 slugging percentage. His 15 doubles leads the SEC and ranks No. 7 in the nation. Brent Rooker is another power hitter with a .350 batting average and is tied with Humphreys for the lead in RBI (28).
Robson's absence will be noticeable on the base paths where he swiped 10 bases before his injury. No other Bulldog has more than three stolen bases, so MSU shouldn't be aggressive on the bases.
On the mound, MSU boasts one of the best Friday night starters in the league with Dakota Hudson leading the staff with a 1.68 ERA (2nd in SEC) in eight starts. Opposing teams are hitting just .204 against the junior right-hander. He's surrendered just 40 hits in 53.2 innings of work and leads the team in strikeouts (59). He has allowed a team-high 20 walks, so control will be the key to his outing.
MSU will throw junior Austin Sexton on Saturday. He stats are very similar to Texas A&M's Saturday and Sunday pitchers with an ERA of 3.28 and a 3-1 record. He's allowed 49 hits in 49 innings of work with opposing batters hitting at a .261 average. So he's solid, but hittable.
Cohen has not announced a starter for game three on Sunday. After Hudson and Sexton, no other MSU pitcher has thrown more than 29 innings. The Bulldogs are also thin in the bullpen. Outfielder and leading power hitter Humphreys is also the team leader in saves with three ... with a 4.50 ERA.
If Brigham Hill and Texas A&M can find a way to beat Hudson on Friday, the Aggies should have an advantage on the mound the rest of the weekend with a good chance to win a big road series.
Whether a coincidence or not, Texas A&M's starting pitching has been atrocious on the road. Hill has to make a loud statement that the hurlers have come to battle this weekend.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Andrew Vinson's return to form gives the Aggie bullpen a new dimension heading into an essential series on the road.
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The pitcher to watch is Andrew Vinson. Rob Childress will likely have a quick hook for the starters, and Vinson has been dominant since returning from an early season nagging injury. His resurgence allowed Childress to move Hill to the starting rotation, and he will give Childress the luxury of going to the bullpen at the first sign of trouble. Even if one of the starters struggles early, Texas A&M can stay in the game if Vinson continues to be efficient and get outs.
The other key on the mound is Ryan Hendrix, who has been an enigma so far this season. He has a MLB fastball and an MLB curveball, and at times he's looked special. At other times, he's struggled with control and has been hit hard. On Tuesday he came into the ninth inning of a 10-1 game against Abilene Christian to stay fresh, and he gave up a crooked number including a home run ball to a .142 hitter.
The big news at the plate has been the extraordinary surge of senior Hunter Melton, who has raised his batting average over 50 points in the last two weeks and at .370 is now only second to Boomer White. His eight homers and 41 RBI lead the team by quite a large margin and he shows no signs of slowing down after hitting three home runs and 10 RBI against Georgia. He is the very definition of a cleanup hitter.
And Melton is driving in runs in bunches with guys like J.B. Moss and Boomer White at the top of the lineup getting on-base at a high clip. White is getting on-base at a .494 rate and Moss has an on-base percentage of .430. But the senior duo is also doing more than just getting on-base, ranking second and third on the team with 25 and 27 RBI respectively.
Austin Homan has provided a spark at the bottom of the lineup since he's taken over the shortstop position a couple of weeks ago. He's hitting .366 and has had some key RBI (nine in just 41 AB's). His glove has also been a pleasant surprise. Homan made several sparkling plays in the field against Georgia and has yet to commit an error in 39 touches.
The only missing piece in a very productive Aggie offense is Nick Banks, and while his statistics are down by his high standards, he's still hitting .290. But he has struggled in critical situations against top competition, and that will need to change if the Aggies want to make noise in the postseason.
The Bulldogs lead the Aggies by one game in the SEC West. MSU has already played Vanderbilt, Florida, and Ole Miss to date. After this weekend, their schedule gets significantly easier.
Abigail Cook, TexAgs
For Rob Childress' team to stay in the hunt for a national seed and the top spot in the SEC West, the impact of a pair of victories in Starkville would be massive.
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MSU's final five SEC opponents have a combined 23-39 conference record. Texas A&M's final five SEC opponents have a combined conference record of 33-28. If the Aggies don't win this weekend's series, they will have a very difficult time overtaking MSU.
With A&M's well-documented road struggles, the squad desperately needs at least a pair of quality road wins against a top-10 opponent. Take care of business this weekend and the postseason resume looks much better for a national top-eight seed and home field advantage in the regional and super regional rounds leading up to Omaha and the College World Series.
And that's the goal this season. This team is too experienced and too good to expect anything less than Omaha.
Postseason positioning aside, the Aggies need to have a good weekend on the road against good competition to erase the bad taste from the Florida debacle. The home series sweep of Georgia helped, but that was one of the few SEC teams that isn't very good. Texas A&M needs to get the job done against elite competition on the road simply to know it is good enough to do it.
A series win over Mississippi State at Dudy-Noble Field in front of a raucous crowd celebrating Super Bulldog Weekend (their spring football game is Saturday) would certainly do the trick and build confidence.
Where: Dudy-Noble Field – Starkville, Miss.
When: Friday 6:30 pm CT (SEC+)
Saturday 2:00 pm CT (SEC+)
Sunday 1:30 pm CT (SEC+)
Pitching matchups
- Friday: Brigham Hill (RHP, 4-0, 1.42) vs. Dakota Hudson (RHP, 4-2, 1.68)
- Saturday: Jace Vines (RHP, 5-0, 3.77) vs. Austin Sexton (RHP, 3-1, 3.28)
- Sunday: Kyle Simonds (RHP, 6-1, 3.35) vs. TBA
Mississippi State players to watch
The Bulldogs are one of the hottest teams in the SEC after winning last weekend's series at Florida — the same Florida team that manhandled Texas A&M a week earlier. In fact, MSU snapped the Gators' 29-game home winning streak.For anybody who thinks this was a lucky weekend, look back at the past four three-game series against No. 10 Oregon, No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 11 Ole Miss, and No. 1 Florida. The Bulldogs won every series against top-10 competition. In fact, MSU is the only team to win every SEC series so far this season.
And the Bulldogs have done it partly without their best hitter, Jacob Robson, who hurt his hand against Ole Miss and is expected to miss the Texas A&M series. But head coach John Cohen inserted freshman phenom Jake Mangum in the lineup and MSU hasn't missed a beat. Mangum has taken over for Robson in the leadoff spot and is hitting a team-leading .427 with a very salty .494 on-base percentage. Last week he earned SEC Player of the Week honors, hitting .556 against UT-Martin and Florida.
Robson's absence will be noticeable on the base paths where he swiped 10 bases before his injury. No other Bulldog has more than three stolen bases, so MSU shouldn't be aggressive on the bases.
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The Bulldogs are hitting .319 as a team with seven players batting over .300 — and that's not including Robson's .372 bating average at the time of his injury. Much like the Aggies, MSU's batting order is front-loaded and extremely potent at the top.After Mangum in the leadoff spot, MSU follows with freshman Elih Marrero (.303) and Nathaniel Lowe (.328) who are solid on-base guys — and they get on-base for the dangerous clean-up hitter Reid Humphreys, who is hitting .350 with a team-leading 28 RBI and .602 slugging percentage. His 15 doubles leads the SEC and ranks No. 7 in the nation. Brent Rooker is another power hitter with a .350 batting average and is tied with Humphreys for the lead in RBI (28).
Robson's absence will be noticeable on the base paths where he swiped 10 bases before his injury. No other Bulldog has more than three stolen bases, so MSU shouldn't be aggressive on the bases.
On the mound, MSU boasts one of the best Friday night starters in the league with Dakota Hudson leading the staff with a 1.68 ERA (2nd in SEC) in eight starts. Opposing teams are hitting just .204 against the junior right-hander. He's surrendered just 40 hits in 53.2 innings of work and leads the team in strikeouts (59). He has allowed a team-high 20 walks, so control will be the key to his outing.
MSU will throw junior Austin Sexton on Saturday. He stats are very similar to Texas A&M's Saturday and Sunday pitchers with an ERA of 3.28 and a 3-1 record. He's allowed 49 hits in 49 innings of work with opposing batters hitting at a .261 average. So he's solid, but hittable.
Cohen has not announced a starter for game three on Sunday. After Hudson and Sexton, no other MSU pitcher has thrown more than 29 innings. The Bulldogs are also thin in the bullpen. Outfielder and leading power hitter Humphreys is also the team leader in saves with three ... with a 4.50 ERA.
If Brigham Hill and Texas A&M can find a way to beat Hudson on Friday, the Aggies should have an advantage on the mound the rest of the weekend with a good chance to win a big road series.
Texas A&M players to watch
Hill will set the tone for the weekend. If he pitches like he did in his Friday night debut last week against Georgia — when he held the other Bulldogs scoreless in 6.1 innings — the Aggies will play well this weekend. If he comes out shaky and can't give the team five or six quality innings and the road struggles will creep back into the team's psyche.Whether a coincidence or not, Texas A&M's starting pitching has been atrocious on the road. Hill has to make a loud statement that the hurlers have come to battle this weekend.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Andrew Vinson's return to form gives the Aggie bullpen a new dimension heading into an essential series on the road.
{"Module":"photo","Alignment":"right","Size":"large","Caption":"Andrew Vinson\u0027s return to form gives the Aggie bullpen a new dimension heading into an essential series on the road.","MediaItemID":56285}
The other key on the mound is Ryan Hendrix, who has been an enigma so far this season. He has a MLB fastball and an MLB curveball, and at times he's looked special. At other times, he's struggled with control and has been hit hard. On Tuesday he came into the ninth inning of a 10-1 game against Abilene Christian to stay fresh, and he gave up a crooked number including a home run ball to a .142 hitter.
The big news at the plate has been the extraordinary surge of senior Hunter Melton, who has raised his batting average over 50 points in the last two weeks and at .370 is now only second to Boomer White. His eight homers and 41 RBI lead the team by quite a large margin and he shows no signs of slowing down after hitting three home runs and 10 RBI against Georgia. He is the very definition of a cleanup hitter.
And Melton is driving in runs in bunches with guys like J.B. Moss and Boomer White at the top of the lineup getting on-base at a high clip. White is getting on-base at a .494 rate and Moss has an on-base percentage of .430. But the senior duo is also doing more than just getting on-base, ranking second and third on the team with 25 and 27 RBI respectively.
Austin Homan has provided a spark at the bottom of the lineup since he's taken over the shortstop position a couple of weeks ago. He's hitting .366 and has had some key RBI (nine in just 41 AB's). His glove has also been a pleasant surprise. Homan made several sparkling plays in the field against Georgia and has yet to commit an error in 39 touches.
The only missing piece in a very productive Aggie offense is Nick Banks, and while his statistics are down by his high standards, he's still hitting .290. But he has struggled in critical situations against top competition, and that will need to change if the Aggies want to make noise in the postseason.
What's at stake this weekend...
It's a battle of top-10 teams in the SEC West Division. It doesn't get any bigger than this ... but we seem to say that almost every week in this brutal SEC grind. Here is what's on the line this weekend.The Bulldogs lead the Aggies by one game in the SEC West. MSU has already played Vanderbilt, Florida, and Ole Miss to date. After this weekend, their schedule gets significantly easier.
Abigail Cook, TexAgs
For Rob Childress' team to stay in the hunt for a national seed and the top spot in the SEC West, the impact of a pair of victories in Starkville would be massive.
{"Module":"photo","Alignment":"left","Size":"large","Caption":"For Rob Childress\u0027 team to stay in the hunt for a national seed and the top spot in the SEC West, the impact of a pair of victories in Starkville would be massive.","MediaItemID":66716}
With A&M's well-documented road struggles, the squad desperately needs at least a pair of quality road wins against a top-10 opponent. Take care of business this weekend and the postseason resume looks much better for a national top-eight seed and home field advantage in the regional and super regional rounds leading up to Omaha and the College World Series.
And that's the goal this season. This team is too experienced and too good to expect anything less than Omaha.
Postseason positioning aside, the Aggies need to have a good weekend on the road against good competition to erase the bad taste from the Florida debacle. The home series sweep of Georgia helped, but that was one of the few SEC teams that isn't very good. Texas A&M needs to get the job done against elite competition on the road simply to know it is good enough to do it.
A series win over Mississippi State at Dudy-Noble Field in front of a raucous crowd celebrating Super Bulldog Weekend (their spring football game is Saturday) would certainly do the trick and build confidence.
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