Series Preview: Ags meet 'supremely talented' Gators in top-25 showdown

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

Who: No. 21 Florida Gators (28-14, 10-8 in SEC)
Where: Condron Family Ballpark - Gainesville, FL
When:

Friday: 5:30 p.m. CT (SEC Network+)
Saturday: 4 p.m. CT (SEC Network)
Sunday: 12 p.m. CT (SEC Network+)

Pitching matchups

Friday: LHP Shane Sdao (3-2, 5.60 ERA) vs. RHP Aidan King (6-2, 1.71 ERA)
Saturday: RHP Aiden Sims (7-0, 3.44 ERA) vs. RHP Liam Peterson (1-3, 3.42 ERA)
Sunday: TBA vs. RHP Russell Sandefer (2-1, 3.86 ERA)

Scouting Florida

Success for Kevin O’Sullivan’s Gators begins and ends on the mound, and they’ve got perhaps the best arm in the entire Southeastern Conference taking the ball for them on Fridays.

During Thursday’s edition of TexAgs Live, ESPN’s Kyle Peterson said that right-hander Aidan King might be the SEC Pitcher of the Year if the season ended today. A look at the sophomore’s numbers certainly supports that claim. In 10 starts, King is 6-2 with a 1.71 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 55 strikeouts against just 13 walks in 52.2 innings pitched. Opponents are hitting .188 as King, a National Pitcher of the Year semifinalist, is among the top prospects ahead of the 2027 MLB Draft. In six SEC starts, King’s WHIP drops to 0.85, and opponents are faring even worse at just .154.

Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel

Now in his 19th season at Florida, Kevin O’Sullivan is 784-385 overall.

As a staff, Florida is among the SEC’s best, ranking fourth in conference ERA at 4.36. The Gators have struck out 183 batters in 157.0 innings in league play, holding opponents to just 69 free passes during that span. Saturday starter Liam Peterson, MLB.com’s No. 13 draft-eligible prospect, is a familiar face with three career appearances vs. Texas A&M. All three came as a true freshman in 2024, and two of them were in Omaha. Even Russell Sandefer on Sunday has a better season ERA than any of the Aggie starters, though that number jumps to 5.12 in conference.

In the bullpen, redshirt freshman Joshua Whritenour looms at the back of the bullpen with his seven saves. His fastball will touch triple digits, and he features a slider in the low 90s. Whritenour possesses a skillset the Aggies haven’t seen much of, but the right-hander can be neutralized if Florida doesn’t have the lead late.

Except that getting the lead has been somewhat difficult for the Gators. At .264, they rank 14th of 16 in the SEC in team batting average. When it comes to slugging, they’re in the bottom five at .439. They also don’t get on base frequently, doing so at a .373 clip to rank 14th in the league. However, in their 18 conference games, they have scored 95 runs, which is ahead of Auburn (93) and behind both Oklahoma (99) and Texas (101). Meanwhile, despite playing 17 SEC contests, A&M leads in that category at 160.

Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK

Outfielder Blake Cyr leads Florida in average (.336), is second in OPS (1.005) and ranks third in runs scored (32).

Senior outfielder Blake Cyr is Florida’s top bat-to-ball man with a club-best .336 average. However, he has plenty of thump in his right-handed bat with nine home runs and a team-leading 40 RBI. Sophomore shortstop Brendan Lawson is the Gators’ best power man, leading the way in homers (11), slugging (.696), on-base percentage (.533) and OPS (1.229). Beyond those two, only corner infielder Ethan Surowiec and centerfielder Kyle Jones are hitting over .300 at .319 and .319, respectively...and that’s not just among qualifiers. Florida literally only has four guys at .300 or better, and only two — Cyr and Lawson — own an OPS north of 1,000.

The stats are one thing. The talent is another, and Florida has it in spades.

Sure, the offensive numbers don’t pop off the page at you, but as Michael Earley warned, a year can flip in an instant.

Texas A&M storylines to watch

With four weeks to play, there are two questions currently top of mind.

How many SEC wins will it take to be a top-eight national seed? Eighteen (18) seems like a safe bet, which would require the Aggies to go 6-6 down the stretch.

How many SEC wins will it take to win the league? First-place Georgia gets Mizzou at home, and the Bulldogs have a path to 20. Obviously, for A&M to get to eight more conference victories would require at least three series wins over teams currently ranked No. 12, No. 4, No. 7 and No. 18 in the RPI.

Whether you’re trying to get to six or eight (or 12, because you play to win the game), the Aggies will require weekends like their last two, in which the offense has annihilated talented opposing pitching and benefited from better starting pitching and a handful of reliable relievers.

Danny Grant, TexAgs

Michael Earley’s Aggies begin the weekend 0.5 games behind Georgia for first place in the SEC.

Beginning with the pitching, Michael Earley’s rotation shuffling has paid dividends already. Of course, consecutive weeks of a better Shane Sdao have helped tremendously as the Friday night starter has given up just two solo home runs in his last 8.2 innings after surrendering even in his previous three starts. More of the same from Sdao would allow A&M to begin the weekend on the right foot, especially with Gavin Lyons, Ethan Darden and even Weston Moss waiting in the bullpen, not to mention National Stopper of the Year Watch Lister Clayton Freshcorn and his seven saves at the backend.

Speaking of Lyons, using his odd-arm-slot heater on repeat has earned him wins in three consecutive outings, each of which has covered multiple innings. In conference play, the sophomore from Connecticut is 5-0 and has the second-best ERA (4.87) and WHIP (1.43) among A&M’s qualifying pitchers behind only Aiden Sims (4.73 ERA and 1.24 WHIP). While it’s not necessarily an Evan Aschenbeck-type of feeling, Lyons is ascending into that Jacob Palisch tier as Earley & Co. trusts him to get important outs and by a reliable bridge to Freshcorn. Lyons’ success has been a major key in not needing to fire the Moss bullet, and we saw how much of an advantage Moss can be in a series finale last weekend in Baton Rouge.

Danny Grant, TexAgs

Gavin Lyons followed a 4.1-inning outing vs. Texas with appearances spanning 2.1 and 2.2 innings on Friday and Sunday at LSU.

While the offense has dominated headlines, and rightfully so, you must give a tip of the cap to Jason Kelly for the improvements the entire staff has made. Now imagine they get bigger contributions from a young arm or two (looking at you, Luke Billings), and that’s where Tuesday’s rainout hurts most.

Speaking of offensive firepower, even on a “down” weekend, the Aggies still averaged 7.33 runs per game against a talented pitching staff in Baton Rouge. Led by Gavin Grahovac and Caden Sorrell, the bats will again face another talented crop of arms. By now, you know those two All-Americans and future first-rounders have an incredible supporting cast around them that includes a trio of talented true freshmen and an always-on-base backstop. However, something that should have piqued your interest at LSU was the hopeful re-emergence of Chris Hacopian. Even before taking 93 mph to the face, the Aggie second baseman had a pair of hits in Friday’s opener. With a double on Saturday and the decisive two-run blast on Sunday, Hacopian finished the series with four hits after entering the weekend with just four hits in all of April. Could it be that Grahovac, Sorrell and Hacopian are all three going to be as-advertised down the stretch? What a difference-maker that would be.

Perhaps different than in weeks past is the fact that Florida excels at limiting the free pass. The Gators rank No. 26 nationally in walks per nine at 3.52. Meanwhile, the Aggie offense is eighth in walks with 249 on the year. For a unit that has controlled the zone so well through the first six weeks of conference play, the importance of doing damage on pitches in the zone increases this weekend, as the Gators will absolutely make the Aggies earn their way to first base.

Danny Grant, TexAgs

Reminder that Gavin Grahovac is the best first baseman in the SEC.

What’s at stake this weekend

The past is not indicative of the present or predictive of the future.

That the Aggies are riding high on an incredible surge that has seen them win four straight SEC series and 11 of 12 conference games matters not as they walk into Gainesville. Just listen to what Earley said during Thursday’s edition of TexAgs Live:

“If you make mistakes, they’re going to make you pay, and I know they’ve had a couple of guys that might not be having the years that they wanted to have, but years can change just like that. We just don’t want them to change on us. Supremely talented and can really bloody you up if you make mistakes.

“They’re like all these other teams in the SEC. None of us are better than the other team. There’s not one team ever, really, in my opinion, when you stack it up, that is better. It’s just about who plays the best baseball. From a talent perspective, no one else is better than the other team.”

To his point, Florida recently took a series from Georgia in Athens and swept Arkansas in Fayetteville to finish March. The Gators also swept Florida State in the midweek. They’re more than capable, especially in their ballpark.

A&M’s path to the postseason is clear. The path to hosting is as well.

To avoid any detours, clean, comprehensive baseball will be required.

That’s always the case in the treacherous waters of the SEC.