#7 LSU Fighting Tigers vs. Texas A&M Aggies at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.

LSU is heading west for the second consecutive season to face the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station, TX. With 9 games remaining, LSU (34-11-1, 12-8-1) trails Alabama and Ole Miss by a half game in the SEC Western Division. The Tigers are heating up at the right time, winners of 14 of the last 17 games and 4 straight conference series. The only road series win on the year was the most recent against Ole Miss, so the Tigers look to build upon the success in Oxford with a trip to A&M. LSU avoided a huge upset on Tuesday night coming from behind to beat Alcorn State and evading a big RPI hit. Texas A&M (28-18, 10-11) are winners of 5 of their last 6, including a midweek win over Rice, a series victory at Mississippi State, and a win over Texas State on Tuesday night. LSU leads the all time series 15-14-1 and has won 9 of the last 10 matchups between the teams. The Tigers came back and won the series last season after the dropping the Friday night game. Aaron Nola won game 2 of that series with Sean McMullen piling up 4 hits in that contest.

Viewership should be high for this weekend with all 3 games being played on national TV and no blackouts in effect. Friday night’s game will start at 6:30pm and will be on CBS College Sports. You can find out your local CBS-S channel using the CBS-S Channel Finder on their website. Saturday’s game is an early afternoon 12:00pm start and will be televised on ESPN2 in addition to being streamed on ESPN3.com and the watchESPN app. Game 3 will start at 1:00pm on Sunday and be seen on ESPNU. As usual, games on ESPN networks are also streamed on ESPN3.com and the watchESPN app. As always, audio is available all 3 games in the GeauxZone.

Texas A&M Aggies
Record: 28-18
Conference: 10-11, t5th SEC west
Non-Conf: 18-7
Home: 20-9
Away: 7-9
Neutral: 1-0

Record vs. RPI: (LSU numbers in parentheses)
Team RPI: 36 (16)
vs Top 25: 6-5 (3-7)
vs Top 50: 10-11 (8-8)
vs Top 100: 13-16 (13-9)

Team Overview:
Texas A&M is led by head coach Rob Childress, who is in his 9th season with the Aggies. Childress has lead A&M to the postseason every year since 2007 including an appearance in the 2011 College World Series, the 5th in program history. In 2004, prior to Childress, the Aggies played a Super Regional in Baton Rouge, a series which the Tigers swept 11-8 and 4-0. Texas A&M joined the SEC last season and faired decent with a 13-16 record, which was good enough to make the NCAA tournament, but eventually lost out to the #3 national seed Oregon State in regional play. The 2014 baseball Aggies are a veteran group trying to battle its way back into the SEC west race. Unlike most teams in the country, A&M has just as many losses at home as they do on the road. They have a pair of impressive series wins against Florida and at Vanderbilt, but also have lost bad series against Auburn and Georgia. That lack of consistency has been a detriment for this club all season and it starts with the starting pitching, which I will get into below. They are, however, coming off of a nice series win in Starkville. They are likely looking at being a low 2 or high 3 seed this year in the NCAA regionals.

Team Stat Comparison (LSU in parentheses)
Runs/game scored: 5.8 (6.0)
Runs/game allowed: 3.9 (2.9)

Team ERA: 3.54 (2.58)
Opponent ERA: 4.92 (4.99)

Team BA: .293 (.276)
Opponent BA: .263 (.220)

Team Fielding %: .973 (.973)
Opponent Fielding %: .962 (.967)

Good OOC wins: @ Rice (1-0)
Bad OOC losses: Louisiana Tech (2-1)

SEC Series Wins: vs Florida (2-1), @ Vanderbilt (2-1), @ Mississippi State (2-1)
SEC Series Losses: @ Auburn (1-2), @ Georgia (1-2), vs Alabama (1-2), vs Kentucky (1-2)

Common OOC Opponents: None

Starting Pitching:
Like most teams, Texas A&M has had some volatility in their weekend rotation. They have started 5 different pitchers on the weekend this season and the record of those starts is 11-11. Straying away from recent weeks, coach Childress has decided to start senior Parker Ray. Ray will be making his first since a March 15 loss to Auburn. In his five starts, Ray is 2-1 with a 4.44 era and opponents hit .300 against him in those games for a very high 1.56 WHIP in 26.1 innings. His 21 walks are tied for most on the team in the fewest recorded innings among starters. Ray’s fastball will be just 88-92, which is nothing special for a RHP, but his changeup is his best pitch. Ray will be dueling Aaron Nola, who is looking to bounce back from his worst start of the season last week. Of note: Texas A&M is just 3-8 this year in the opening game of a series, including 1-6 in SEC series.

Saturday, ESPN2 will feature a matchup between Jared Poché of LSU and Daniel Mengden of Texas A&M. Following a sensational sophomore campaign in which he was 2nd team all SEC with a 2.11 era, Mengden has taken somewhat of a step back as a junior. Formerly a two-way player, Mengden has turned his focus to pitching as the Friday night starter this season, but has faltered to a 3-6 record and just 1 win in the SEC. He’s got the stuff to compete with a fastball up around 94 and a plus changeup. He has can strike out a lot of guys with that change, but he has surrendered a .350 BABIP (avg on balls in play) and really labored at times. Mengden earned the victory on Friday night of the series against LSU last season throwing 8 innings of 1 run ball. LSU freshman Jared Poché looks to build off of his best road outing, 6 innings of 2 run ball at Ole Miss. This may be the pivotal matchup of the series.

On Sunday, Grayson Long, the big 6’5 right handed power arm, will take to the bump for the Aggies. Long has been the best and most consistent starter for the A&M staff this season. He has a 5-1 record in SEC games with impressive wins over Florida, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State. Long comes with a three-quarter arm slot and brings his fastball up to 95mph. He will throw a two variations of a breaking ball in addition to a changeup that is the better of the offspeed pitches. LSU has not announced a starter once again this weekend in the event that Alden Cartwright is needed in relief in game 1 or 2. However barring disaster, we will see Cartwright take the hill on Sunday. I have listed him as the starter below, though it is unofficial. Also of note: A&M is 6-1 in game 3 of SEC series.

Friday's Pitching Matchup:
LSU - Jr. RHP Aaron Nola (7-1, 1.40 ERA, 77.1 IP, 47 H, 12 ER, 19 BB, 95 K, .175 OBA, 0.85 WHIP)
TAMU - Sr. RHP Parker Ray (4-3, 5.48 ERA, 47.2 IP, 52 H, 29 ER, 21 BB, 41 K, .284 OBA, 1.53 WHIP)

Saturday's Pitching Matchup:
LSU - Fr. LHP Jared Poché (6-3, 2.59 ERA, 62.2 IP, 49 H, 18 ER, 18 BB, 40 K, .219 OBA, 1.07 WHIP)
TAMU - Jr. RHP Daniel Mengden (3-6, 4.00 ERA, 72.0 IP, 72 H, 32 ER, 21 BB, 75 K, .260 OBA, 1.29 WHIP)

Sunday's Pitching Matchup:
LSU - Fr. RHP Alden Cartwright (1-0, 1.59 ERA, 22.2 IP, 16 H, 4 ER, 5 BB, 18 K, .198 OBA, 0.93 WHIP)
TAMU - Sr. RHP Grayson Long (6-1, 2.79 ERA, 67.2 IP, 74 H, 21 ER, 17 BB, 44 K, .280 OBA, 1.34 WHIP)

continued in next post...

This post was edited on 5/2/14 at 8:12 am