College Station, Texas Thu 9 -- 8:00 pm -- TELEVISED ON ESPNU (Thurs Night SEC Game of the Week) Fri 10 -- 6:30 pm -- TELEVISED ON CST and CSS Sat 11 -- 12:00 pm -- TELEVISED ON ESPN Mainieri: "Texas A&M has an outstanding program that was in the College World Series just two years ago, so they certainly have our attention. ... especially on the road in a new environment" (it's been 23 years since LSU has played @aTm...LSU's 1990 CWS team lost the last regular-season series at A&M, dropping the first two games 2-4 and 2-5 before salvaging a 5-2 victory) Katz: "We know it's going to be a dogfight against Texas A&M." Texas A&M average home baseball attendance 2013 -- #9 in NCAA (as of May 6, 2013) 2012 -- #9 in NCAA 2011 -- #11 in NCAA 2010 -- #11 in NCAA 2009 -- #9 in NCAA 2008 -- #11 in NCAA 2007 -- #12 in NCAA 2006 -- #9 in NCAA 2005 -- #4 in NCAA 2004 -- #3 in NCAA 2003 -- #3 in NCAA 2002 -- #4 in NCAA 2001 -- #3 in NCAA 2000 -- #4 in NCAA 1999 -- #3 in NCAA Members of the Texas A&M baseball team sing the Aggie War Hymn before their opening night matchup with the University of Illinios-Chicago Friday, Feb. 17, 2012.
both coaches recently notched their 300th career wins at their respective programs Mainieri: 301-128-2 at LSU (70.1%) Childress: 315-175-2 at aTm (64.2%) compare to the previous legends at the two respective programs: Skip Bertman (1984-2001 at LSU) -- 870-330-3 at LSU (72.4%) -- His #15 jersey was retired and the ballpark renamed Skip Bertman Field at Alex Box Stadium Mark Johnson (1985-2005) at aTm -- 876-431-3 at aTm (67.0%) -- His #7 jersey hangs on the right field wall at Blue Bell Park in honor of his service to A&M SERIES HISTORY The Aggies joined the SEC with a 78-52-2 (.595) record against the against the SEC (not counting Mizzou). here's how the Aggies have done against the ten original SEC teams: 15-12-1 vs LSU 8-9 vs Mississippi State 6-3 vs Ole Miss 6-1 vs Florida 3-2 vs Alabama 3-0 vs Georgia 3-1 vs Kentucky 1-0 vs Tennessee 1-2 vs Auburn 0-0 vs Vanderbilt --LSU knocked off the Aggies twice at the old Alex Box Stadium in a 2004 Super Regional showdown, 11-8 and 4-9. --Todd Walker's grand slam nailed down a 13-8 victory over Texas A&M in the 1993 CWS, keeping the Tigers, who rallied from a 7-2 deficit to the Aggies, on track for their second national crown. --Two of the biggest wins in LSU program history came as the 2-seed against A&M in the 1989 NCAA Regional at #1-ranked Texas A&M (58-5 record) -- 13-5 and 5-4 in 11 innings "That was a wonderful event for baseball," said LSU athletic director Skip Bertman. "That was the first time in the modern era that Texas A&M hosted a regional, and Mark (Johnson, Texas A&M's coach) had everyone there — cadets and fans. There must have been 4,000 people there, and that was huge crowd back then. "That was a monster team with (Chuck) Knoblauch and the boys (at A&M), and he (Johnson) had done a great job. The fans were very, very loud ... They were great fans ... It was more like a football crowd. They were very loud and rowdy." "We had a great series with them in 1989," A&M coach Mark Johnson said. "It was a heartbreaker for us. That's well remembered by our people. We need to make amends." Mark Johnson Rob Childress
ever since the Aggies decided there needed to be a change in luck and opted to go clean shaven, the Aggies have been on a four-game win streak, including their three-game sweep of the Missouri Tigers last weekend. The A&M pitching staff has allowed just nine runs over that four-game stretch. "Coach wasn't satisfied with the way we were playing and we weren't as a team so we decided we had to redefine stuff and the whole team had to shave," aTm ace Daniel Menden said. "And I'm part of the team and even though we are allowed to have mustaches, I decided I'm part of the team too so I need to shave it off and be part of the team." and it's a darn shame too, because he had a sweet Rollie Fingers mustache going on: aTm ace Daniel Menden, #15 Childress said this about Mengden's new clean-shaven look: "He is a handsome young man without that mustache." and the loss of his mustache apparently worked in Mengden's favor, as his game vs Mizzou was "maybe his most dominant performance in an A&M uniform," said Childress. "That's just how dominant a performance he had" and he is the pitcher LSU will be facing tonight, and he's a great one, he was #55 on PerfectGame 2011 HS Top 500 Prospects (Nola was #89 on that same list...both were rated PG Grade 10.0--Potential very high draft pick and/or Elite level college prospect). Gabe Bock, texags.com: "Daniel Mengden was recruited to be the next great pitcher to wear the maroon and white." and check out how he's done in his last 9 starts: Mizzou -- 8.0 inn, 2 hits, 1 ER, 10 K's, 3 walks, .083 Bama -- 7.0 inn, 4 hits, 3 ER, 6 K's, 3 walks, .167 Arkansas -- 6.0 inn, 5 hits, 2 ER, 6 K's, 2 walks, .238 Miss St -- 7.0 inn, 4 hits, 2 ER, 7 K's, 3 walks, .167 Auburn -- 7.0 inn, 7 hits, 0 ER, 4 K's, 0 walks, .259 S. Carolina -- 6.0 inn, 4 hits, 3 ER, 3 K's, 2 walks, .182 Ole Miss -- 5.2 inn, 6 hits, 1 ER, 2 K's, 1 walk, .260 Georgia -- 8.0 inn, 6 hits, 1 ER, 8 K's, 0 walks, .207 Cal State Fullerton -- 6.0 inn, 5 hits, 1 ER, 6 K's, 0 walks, .227 this is what Kendall Rogers of Perfect Game wrote about him on March 2, 2013: #TAMU RHP Daniel Mengden works a flawless seventh inning. Still 88-89 fastball, good overall stuff. #mlbdraft this is what texags.com wrote about him on Feb 23, 2013: "Mengden used mostly fastballs with tremendous location during his 107-pitch gem" and not only is he their ace pitcher, but he also plays OF/DH and is #4 on the team with a .275 batting average (and only 8 guys on the team have more at-bats than he does). He's from Houston, both his father and his uncle are Texas A&M grads, and he's majoring in agriculture communications (he was National Honor Society in high school)
LSU is taking a gamble and countering with our #3 pitcher, Cody Glenn, tonight Randy Rosetta: "There's some added motivation for Glenn (tonight). He's a Houston native and he was headed to A&M before LSU entered the picture. In fact, the same weekend he was headed to Baton Rouge for an official visit, Glenn was poised to commit to the Aggies. Instead, his heart strings got tugged a different direction
Surprised that A&M fans could spell scholars. this was taken at a 2011 women's soccer game when LSU went to aTm
LSU fans from Houston (1 hour, 30 min away), Austin (2 hours away), and Dallas (2 hours, 45 min away) should be coming in droves
a preview of Olsen Field for the first SEC baseball series Olsen Field has a fresh cut for the Inaugural SEC series at Blue Bell Park Aggies singing the signing war hymn before the game
--aTm batters are #2 in SEC with 315 strike-outs, just 1 behind Miss State (316)...LSU pitching is #2 in the SEC with most batters struck out (390) --aTm pitching is 3rd-worst in the SEC with 26 home runs allowed, LSU is 2nd-best in the SEC with 36 home runs --aTm is by far #1 in stolen bases of any SEC team we'll see this regular season (69), and they have a 74.2% success rate when they attempt to steal (compare to our next opponent, Ole Miss, which has a 54.1% success rate when they attempt to steal) --aTm is holding opponents to a .254 opposing batting average. compare to our last 3 opponents: .252 -- South Carolina .253 -- Bama .259 -- Florida --aTm is only allowing 3.6 runs per 9 innings. compare to our last 3 opponents: 3.1 -- South Carolina 3.3 -- Bama 4.0 -- Florida --aTm has only committed 49 errors. compare to our last 3 opponents: 49 -- Bama 49 -- Florida 48 -- South Carolina --aTm has a .973 fielding pct. compare to our last 3 opponents .975 -- Bama .974 -- Florida .972 -- South Carolina
aTm only has four regular starters hitting above .250, but two of them are among the Top 10 hitters in the SEC, Mikey Reynolds (.371) and Cole Landford (.351) MIKEY REYNOLDS REACHING BASE In the Aggies’ series finale against Missouri, Mikey Reynolds had his streak of reaching base snapped at 45 games. The senior has reached base in 45 of his 46 games. The streak began with a 22-game hit streak and ended with a 15-game hit streak. He has hit safely in 41 of 46 games. He is hitting .371 on the season COLE TRAIN Cole Lankford has been playing his best collegiate baseball as of late. In his last 31 games (the Aggies’ last 37 games), Lankford is batting .379 (47-for-124) with 13 multiple hit games, 10 doubles, two triples, one home run and 19 RBI. In the weekend series at No. 8 Cal State Fullerton, he went 6-for-13 with five RBI. In the series finale against Georgia, Lankford came up just a single shy of hitting for the cycle going 3-for-5 with three runs, one double, one triple, one home run and one RBI. In the series finale against No. 6 Ole Miss, Lankford keyed the Aggies comeback, going 2-for-4 with one double and two runs scored. He batted 5-for-11 against South Carolina, including three hits in the series opener. Lankford batted 7-for-14 with two doubles and two RBI in the three-game series against Auburn.
