Bulldogs and Aggies meet for 34th time in program history, 22nd time as SEC foes in series opener
STARKVILLE – With just one month remaining in the regular season, the No. 4 Mississippi State baseball program will welcome Texas A&M for a three-game series at Dudy Noble Field.
Mississippi State (29-10, 11-7 SEC) was idle during the midweek with finals week wrapping up, while Texas A&M (24-19, 5-13 SEC) won its midweek tilt with Texas State. Both teams dropped their SEC series last weekend, with State winning once at No. 3 Vanderbilt and A&M took one game against No. 5 Tennessee in Bryan-College Station, Texas.
It will be a pair of powerful pitching staffs meeting up at The Dude, as the Bulldogs (503 strikeouts) and Aggies (467 strikeouts) rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in total strikeouts. Mississippi State is the only team in the country with 500 strikeouts and leads the NCAA with 13.0 strikeouts per nine innings. Christian MacLeod sits No. 14 nationally with 14.00 strikeouts per nine innings pitched, while Jackson Fristoe is No. 27 in the same category at 13.16.
On offense, Tanner Allen and Rowdey Jordan have led the way for Mississippi State, while Texas A&M is led by the trio of Will Frizzell, Ray Alejo and Austin Bost. Jordan owns a 24-game reached base streak and Allen is hitting a team-best .350 on the season. Frizzell leads the NCAA with 100 total bases and it No. 9 with 13 home runs.
Gameday Info
Friday, April 30 (6:30 p.m.)
Probable Starters
MSU: Christian MacLeod, RHP, Fr. (3Y)
TAMU: Dustin Saenz, LHP, Sr.
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Saturday, May 1 (2 p.m.)
Probable Starters
MSU: Will Bednar, RHP, Fr. (2Y)
TAMU: Bryce Miller, RHP, Sr.
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Sunday, May 2 (2 p.m.)
Probable Starters
MSU: Jackson Fristoe, RHP, Fr.
TAMU: Nathan Dettmer, RHP, Fr.
TV: SEC Network
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Quick Hitters
- Mississippi State will spend its 10th straight week ranked among the top five by at least one of the major polls, sitting as high as No. 4 per Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.
- State will close the SEC slate with two series versus Western Division (host Texas A&M, at Alabama) and two Eastern Division (at South Carolina, host Missouri) foes over the next four weekends.
- In SEC play, the pitching staff is allowing the opposition to hit just .228 with just 139 hits in 159 innings of work. Opponents are slugging just .390 and own a poultry .317 on-base percentage.
- Tanner Allen had three doubles last week to move his career total to 52 and move him into the top 10 at MSU. He is currently tied for No. 8 on the all-time doubles list and needs just one double to equal current MSU Director of Athletics John Cohen for No. 7 (53).
- Allen is also closing in on joining an exclusive club at Mississippi State. With 230 career hits, 145 runs scored and 154 RBIs, he can become just the eight Diamond Dawg to pile up 250 hits, 150 runs scored and 150 RBIs in a career.
- Rowdey Jordan moved past the 200 career hit mark over the weekend at Vanderbilt and ended the week with 201 career knocks. His 201st hit was also his 20th career home run, which moves him into a tie for No. 35 all-time at MSU with Hunter Renfroe (20; 2011-13).
- Jordan enters the weekend with a 24-game reached base streak, which includes all 18 games in SEC play. During the streak, the switch hitter owns a .360 batting average and .481 on-base percentage with 28 runs scored and 31 hits. He has also walked 10 times and been hit-by-pitch 11 times.
- Head coach Chris Lemonis sits at 93 during his tenure at Mississippi State (122 games) and looks to become the fastest head coach in program history to reach the 100-win mark.
- A midweek victory over UAB made Mississippi State 28-1 in midweek contests over the last three seasons, including a perfect 10-0 mark during the 2021 season. The Diamond Dawgs went 15-0 in the midweek during the 2019 season and was 3-1 in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short.
Scouting the Opponent
- Texas A&M enters with a record of 29-10, including a midweek win over Texas State on Tuesday. The Aggies have won one game in each of its last two series against No. 1 Arkansas and No. 5 Tennessee.
- The Aggies enter the week ranked No. 6 in the nation and third in the SEC with 215 walks. Adding 39 hit-by-pitch, Texas A&M own a .370 on-base percentage.
- The pitching staff has struck out 467 batters, which ranks No. 2 in the nation behind MSU. The Aggies are tied for the SEC lead with six shutouts on the season.
- Will Frizzell ranks No. 9 nationally with 13 home runs – tied for No. 4 in the SEC – and leads the conference with 100 total bases, a total that is No. 15 in the NCAA.
- Reliever Chandler Jozwiak and starting pitcher Dustin Saenz rank among the top strikeout pitchers in the NCAA, with Jozwiak owning a 13.91 strikeouts per nine innings pitched to sit No. 5 in the SEC and No. 16 in the nation.
Series Notes
- Mississippi State and Vanderbilt will meet for the 34th time to open its series on Friday, with MSU owning a 18-15 advantage all-time.
- The first meeting in the series came in 1907 in Starkville and didn’t meet again until 1986 in Bryan-College Station.
- Over the first 16 meetings in the series, MSU held a 12-4 record against the Aggies, in the last 17 games played, TAMU is 11-6 against the Bulldogs.
- As SEC opponents, Texas A&M owns a slim 11-10 edge in regular season conference play. State won the lone meeting at the SEC Tournament, which came in 2013.
- In the last meeting, Mississippi State won two of three games at Blue Bell Park, taking the series opener, 4-0, and the series finale, 4-3. The two teams played two seven inning games on Sunday in that series due to weather.