Series Preview: Blue Bell set for top-25 SEC showdown

Also included above is a TexAgs Live segment with Ryan Brauninger and Richard Zane from Friday morning, previewing this weekend’s series vs. Georgia.

Who: No. 7 Georgia Bulldogs (18-4, 2-1 in SEC)
Where: Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park - Bryan-College Station, TX
When:

Friday: 6 p.m. CT (SEC Network+)
Saturday: 2 p.m. CT (SEC Network+)
Sunday: 3 p.m. CT (SEC Network)

Pitching matchups

Friday: LHP Shane Sdao (3-0, 3.41 ERA) vs. RHP Joey Volchko (4-0, 3.81 ERA)
Saturday: RHP Weston Moss (3-1, 5.76 ERA) vs. RHP Dylan Vigue (3-1, 2.31 ERA)
Sunday: RHP Aiden Sims (3-0, 3.55 ERA) vs. TBA

Scouting Georgia

Offense, offense and more offense. Georgia leads the nation in home runs (69) and slugging percentage (.691). The Bulldogs rank second behind in-state rival Georgia Tech in runs (256 to 229), and they are amongst the top 10 in average (.343), on-base percentage (.473), hits (244) and scoring (10.4 runs per game).

Regardless of where Wes Johnson & Co. are playing — their home bandbox of Foley Field or an offensive Blue Bell Park with temperatures in the 90s — they expect to mash.

Joshua L. Jones / USA TODAY NETWORK

Wes Johnson is in his third season as a head coach, and he has taken Georgia to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first two years.

Leading the way is Wofford transfer Daniel Jackson, who is second in the country in homers. A right-handed hitting catcher who can also roam the outfield, he has 14 round-trippers to go along with a .429 average and a .988 slugging percentage, which is good for third nationally. First baseman Brennan Hudson (11) and shortstop Kolby Branch (10) join Jackson as Dawgs with double-digit bombs, but the latter is the only qualified hitter with an average under .300. As a unit, seven of the eight qualifiers have an OPS north of 1.000.

It’s an offense that is seemingly always in attack mode, yet they don’t tend to swing-and-miss very much. In last weekend’s series victory over Tennessee in Athens, they punched 28 times across the three-game set. Comparatively, A&M struck out 35 times in Norman. Another element that makes Georgia tough to pitch to is their patience. Sure, the Aggies have been solid at controlling the strike zone with 128 total free passes, but the Bulldogs have 134 to their credit through 22 games. Patient but always ready to attack, and when they do, it’s often loud and damaging.

The offense might make it easy to overlook Georgia’s pitching staff. A former Major League pitching coach who also tutored Paul Skenes when the reigning National League Cy Young winner was at LSU, Johnson’s arms in Athens are built to give top offenses like A&M’s trouble. That begins with Friday night starter Joey Volchko. The Stanford transfer throws cutters at 96-97 mph, but the right-hander mixes in a tight slider around 90, which MLB.com considers his best pitch. Volchko has 32 strikeouts against 10 walks in 26.0 innings, most recently allowing four runs across five frames in a no-decision last Friday vs. Tennessee. Meanwhile, on Saturday, right-hander Dylan Vigue will bring his 0.90 WHIP into play as opponents are hitting just .177 against the former Michigan Wolverine. Sunday remains a TBA for Johnson, but Japanese sophomore Kenny Ishikawa tossed two frames against the Vols in last week’s finale as the two-star continues to build back from a hairline fracture in his foot.

As Michael Earley bluntly put it during Thursday’s edition of TexAgs Live: Texas A&M will have its hands full this weekend, but that’s just another day in the life of an SEC weekend.

Texas A&M storylines to watch

It begins and ends with starting pitching. Earley & Co. knew that prior to the trip to Norman, but the Sooners provided them a crash course in the kind of crashout one can expect when your starters depart too early. Shane Sdao failed to escape the fourth on Friday, and from then on, the entire staff was in fire-drill mode the rest of the weekend. Ultimately, they were scraping the bottom of the bullpen barrel in a tight ballgame on Sunday afternoon. More length from Sdao in the opener or Aiden Sims in the finale would have put the Aggies in a better position to win the rubber game, but alas, they were outlasted.

Given that the Bulldogs can swing it, boasting a better club average and a much more impressive team slugging percentage than Oklahoma, A&M’s starting rotation again has its hands full this weekend. Factor in warmer temperatures in Aggieland, and Blue Bell Park will likely play on the smaller side. Even with the cards stacked somewhat against the pitching for both sides, Sdao has to set the tone and utilize his dog-like mentality to minimize the Dawg damage while staying on the mound longer than he did in Norman. Truly, the southpaw’s start looks to be the X-factor for the entire series, as Sdao’s outing will determine how and when a now-shorter bullpen can be implemented. While the walks hampered the staff as a whole to open SEC play, Sdao only walked one and hit another. His propensity to limit the free pass will be massive against the Georgia offense, but he’ll also aim for an uptick in swing-and-miss stuff in his sixth start of 2026.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Shane Sdao’s start in Oklahoma accounted for just 11 outs.

With Josh Stewart’s injury last Friday (Earley announced he’ll miss the remainder of 2026), the trusted relief options are thinner than expected. Clayton Freshcorn, with four saves to his credit, has been the highlight, and his three-inning appearance last Saturday was just a glimpse at the heroics required to win conference games. Further, rubber-arm (compliment) Gavin Lyons has shown the ability to positively impact multiple games each weekend with his three-quarters arm slot. On Tuesday vs. Texas State, Juan Vargas and Ethan Darden both bounced back following respective rough showings vs. the Sooners. Can those two still get outs vs. SEC offenses? Has a Wednesday performer proved himself enough for a shot on the weekend? Who is going to step up?

Most of the questions revolve around the pitching because A&M’s offense has lived up to its billing through 20 games. The Aggies even got a boost from streak-breaker Chris Hacopian, who is 5-for-13 since his return with a pair of home runs. Along with Wesley Jordan, the addition of Hacopian lengthens the lineup as the Maroon & White are fully healthy on offense. Along with red-hot Caden Sorrell (and his 1.353 OPS), the heating-up Gavin Grahovac, professional hitter Jake Duer, a pair of on-base machines in Bear Harrison and Terrence Kiel II and the two mature true freshmen, there are no breaks for opposing pitchers against A&M’s lineup. The approach must remain consistent, though, which it has been early on this season.

And how about a moment for Sorrell? The All-American homered twice on Tuesday vs. Texas State to bring his season total to 11. With 34 in his career, he now ranks eighth in A&M history. His big bat, along with the right-handed swings of Grahovac and Hacopian, will be key as the Aggies try to match UGA swing-for-swing.

Danny Grant, TexAgs

Caden Sorrell has homered three times across his last three games.

What’s at stake this weekend

Another weekend brings another opportunity vs. another top-10 opponent.

Week to week, the margins in the SEC will always be razor-thin. They proved to be so in Norman a week ago, as a play or a pitch or two was the difference in pulling off a road-series victory vs. returning home at 1-2 in the league. Of course, winning a conference road game is nothing to scoff at, and the Aggies likely feel pretty positive after standing toe-to-toe with Oklahoma.

Now they have another chance to break through against the top-10 Bulldogs.

If the Maroon & White can find themselves on the right side of those margins, it will undoubtedly raise some eyebrows around the SEC. It would also be a statement to the A&M fan base as a major signal that 2026 is trending in the right direction. These Aggies are certainly capable, but don’t think it will be easy. It’s fair to expect sticky situations against the Bulldogs.

Speaking of, don’t think the 12th Man has forgotten about Christian Mracna.