No. 3 Texas A&M Baseball Opens SEC Play at No. 8 Florida

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News release from Texas A&M Athletics:

GAINESVILLE – The No. 3 Texas A&M baseball team hits the road to take on No. 8 Florida (10-6) in its 2024 SEC Opener starting Friday night at 5:30 p.m. CST from Condron Family Ballpark.

The Aggies are off to a 17-0 start for the first time since 2015 and third time in program history. The Maroon & White enter the weekend as one of two remaining undefeated teams in Division I.

The weekend set will be broadcast on SEC Network+ and can be heard locally on SportsRadio 1150 AM/93.7 The Zone. Fans can also follow along with the series on X, @AggieBaseball.

Friday’s series opener marks the 28th meeting all-time between the Aggies and Gators. Texas A&M leads the all-time series 15-12 and have won two straight. The weekend set marks the third time the two SEC foes will meet in a Top 10 matchup.

Since the hiring of Head Coach Jim Schlossnagle, the Maroon & White are tied with Florida and Tennessee for the most SEC series wins with 14 during that span.

The Aggies entered the week as a unanimous Top 5 team after making a jump in all five major polls. The Maroon & White rank as high as No. 3 in Perfect Game’s Top 25 and moved up to No. 4 in the D1Baseball, USA Today and NCBWA polls. In Baseball America’s Top 25, Texas A&M sits fifth.

The Maroon & White pitching staff continues to thrive in 2024, leading the nation in ERA (2.01), shutouts (6) and WHIP (1.00). The Aggies also rank second in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.53), second in hits allowed per nine (6.14), fifth in strikeouts per nine (13.0) and eighth in walks allowed per nine (2.86).

Texas A&M will send LHP Ryan Prager, RHP Tanner Jones and LHP Justin Lamkin to the mound this weekend. The trio has combined for a 0.53 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 51.0 innings this season. Friday night’s starter, Prager, ranks second nationally in WHIP (0.51), third in victories (4), fifth in strikeouts, seventh in hits allowed per nine (3.42), 12th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (13.33) and 14th in strikeouts per nine (15.2). The redshirt sophomore also earned National Pitcher of the Week honors from Perfect Game on Monday.

On the offensive end, the Maroon & White sit second in walks (142), sixth in on-base percentage (.470), 15th in runs (170), 17th in home runs (32) and 19th in scoring (10.0). Outfielders Braden Montgomery and Jace LaViolette have been one of the best duos in all of college baseball throughout the first 17 games, combining for 16 home runs and 56 RBI. The duo’s 56 RBI are the most among a pair of teammates in the country.

Montgomery, who has driven in a run in nine consecutive games, currently leads the SEC and ranks third nationally in RBI with 31. LaViolette, who registered his seventh multi-home run game of his career Tuesday, ranks fifth in the country in homers (9), eighth in runs scored (28), 11th in slugging percentage (.931), 12th in runs per game (1.65) and 15th in home runs per game (0.53).

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