Meet Braden Montgomery of the Texas A&M Aggies. He is a transfer from Stanford and has 27 home runs and 85 runs driven in.
This year.
And Montgomery doesn’t even lead his team in homers. That distinction goes to Jace LaViolette, who has 28 dingers for the season to go with 74 RBIs and a .315 batting average.
By comparison, Oregon’s leading power hitter, Jacob Walsh, tied the single-season home run mark at 18 this past weekend. He also has 56 RBIs.
But back to Montgomery. He also leads the Aggies with a .322 batting average. He is far from being a one-man gang in the Texas A&M lineup. They also boast Gavin Grahovac and his 22 homers to go with his 63 RBIs.
As with most cases when the baseball tournament reaches the Super Regionals, it’s going to be good pitching against good hitting and whichever wins out will advance to Omaha.
Texas A&M has some solid pitching as well and they should be a tough task for the Oregon offense. The ace, lefty Ryan Prager, leads the team with a 8-1 record and a 2.53 earned run average. He’s expected to start Game 1 on Saturday.
Tanner Jones is their No. 2 starter with a 3-1 record and a hefty 6.22 ERA. It’s been a tough season for Jones as he has been knocked out of the game before the fifth inning in every start except a win over Vanderbilt when he went 7.1 innings in the 9-0 win in mid-April.
As for the third starter, Justin Lamkin, the lefty is 2-2 with a 5.73 ERA.
While the second and third starters are a bit questionable and hittable, the Aggies do possess one of the best closers in the nation with senior Evan Aschenbeck. He is 6-1 on the season with seven saves and an ERA of 1.64. If he should come into the game in a save situation, it’s usually lights out for the opposition.
Oregon is planning not to put itself in that particular situation at any time this weekend. If the Ducks are facing Aschenbeck, the season could very well hang in the balance.
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