Texas A&M continued taking care of business over the weekend.
The Aggies went into Gainesville as winners of seven consecutive SEC ballgames and came out with another pair of wins and an ever-important series victory. While Friday left a lot to be desired at the plate and on the mound, the Maroon & White stepped up and showed out on Saturday and Sunday to shut down the Gators. A&M’s offense was good, but the story of the weekend was certainly the strong performance from the pitching staff. These were the five key areas that led the Ags to another SEC series victory and kept them in the hunt for an SEC regular-season title.
Win the strike-throwing battle
This was a weekend where the pitching staff had to be on their game in order to match some of the elite arms on the Florida squad. Therefore, the Ags had to be at their best competing in the zone against a weaker Gator lineup. They were incredibly successful at this throughout the three-game set, with their lowest strike percentage of the weekend being 64.9 percent in the Friday loss. This was notable because Florida’s strike percentage in that contest was a quality 67.4 percent due almost entirely to a stellar outing from Aidan King. However, the Ags were able to bounce back and attack the strike zone more effectively than the Gators in the final two contests of the weekend. The Ags threw 65.2 percent of their pitches for strikes on Saturday and improved further on Sunday at 69.8 percent. In contrast, the Gator staff was only at 64.4 percent and 65 percent strikes in the Saturday and Sunday contests, respectively. A&M pitching has excelled in this area all season, but this series was notable because they outdueled one of the better staffs in the SEC in this area. The Aggies must continue to pound the zone to keep the wins rolling through the rest of SEC play.
Lead off the inning strong
A key metric in two of the three games of the series was each team’s ability to get the leadoff man on base. This category was dominated by the Gators on Friday, while the Aggies excelled on Saturday. Friday saw the Ags go just 1-for-9 leading off the inning, whereas the Gators went 6-for-8 and scored in four of the innings in which they got the leadoff runner aboard. On the flip side, Saturday saw the Ags go 6-for-9 at getting the leadoff man aboard, while the Gators were just 3-for-9. A&M also notably scored in five of the six innings in which they got the leadoff man on. The Sunday contest was interesting in this category, as both squads went 3-for-9 in leadoff opportunities. However, the difference was in the fact that the Ags scored in all three innings they got the leadoff man aboard, while the Gators scored in none of the three. This shows that each team's ability to get the leadoff man on and capitalize was crucial throughout the series. This is an area that should be key for the Aggie bats and arms going forward, as they will create/shut down scoring opportunities against their remaining SEC opponents based on the success of the leadoff batter.
Make/limit the big swings
This was another weekend where the ability to get/limit big hits was a key factor in the outcome of each game. In fact, in every contest in Gainesville, the team that got more extra-base knocks was the team that emerged victorious. Friday saw the Aggie pitching staff give up a weekend high six extra-base hits to the Gator lineup that was not able to match that total in the other two contests combined. Additionally, the Aggies were stifled in this category on Friday, as the two-run shot by Gavin Grahovac was the singular XBH in the contest for A&M. However, the script flipped on both Saturday and Sunday as the A&M arms limited Florida hitters to three and two XBH in each game, respectively. In contrast, the Aggie bats went off on Saturday for five XBH and had another three on Sunday. This shows that for the Aggie pitchers and hitters, one recipe for success is to outperform the opponent in this area. If the offense can continue to punish mistakes while the pitching limits them, this A&M squad will consistently be in a position to win ballgames.
More hits = more runs
While this may seem like an obvious metric to point out, it has not always rang true this season due to A&M’s brilliant plate discipline. The Ags have won games this year in which they have gotten fewer hits than their opponent simply due to their patience at the plate. However, this was not possible in Gainesville, as the Gator pitching staff only offered up four total free passes. Therefore, it was crucial that the bats got hot after a tough showing on Friday night. The opener saw the Aggies collect just five hits and get nobody on base for free, which is not a good combination. Fortunately, the A&M bats bounced back very quickly, collecting 15 knocks against the Florida pitchers on Saturday and adding 11 more in the finale. On the flip side, the Aggie pitching staff got lit up for 13 hits on Friday night, but they bounced back to allow just nine and eight hits in each of the last two contests, respectively. These numbers are not incredibly low, but the potency of the A&M offense made it so that it did not matter. Moving forward, the Ags will continue to face quality pitching as they did in Gainesville, making it even more important that they continue to win the battle in the hit column.
Brilliant out the bullpen
For the second weekend in a row, the Aggies saw some stellar performances coming from their bullpen arms. Friday was the exception in this regard, as six arms came in the game to combine for 4.1 innings while giving up six runs on five hits and giving out five free passes. Despite this, the Ags still got a positive outing from Hunter Bond, who retired all three batters he faced. Additionally, Ethan Darden combined for one inning in two games and did his job by stranding the Gators in both instances. However, the real story in this category was once again the performances from Clayton Freshcorn and Gavin Lyons on Saturday and Sunday. The latter threw a combined four innings in his two outings, giving up just two hits and one run while walking two and striking out three. Freshcorn finished both games, combining for 4.1 innings himself. He allowed six hits and gave up just one run while striking out four without issuing a walk. This combo of Lyons and Freshcorn to end games has truly become a staple for the Aggie pitching staff in recent weeks. They will need to continue their excellence coming down the stretch of the season as the Ags continue to try to lock up a top national seed in the postseason.
Overall, this series was exactly what you wanted to see from the Ags, as they found new ways to win against an opponent with a stellar pitching staff. It was especially encouraging to see how the whole team responded after dropping a series opener for the first time since Vanderbilt. However, the job is not finished for this Aggie team, and they must continue to find success on the mound and at the plate in their final three SEC series. If the Ags can replicate success from the key areas above, they should find themselves locked into a top national seed and making a real push for an SEC regular-season title.
