COLLEGE STATION, TX — The No. 17 Texas A&M Aggies wrap up the non-conference portion of their regular-season slate Tuesday when they travel to Huntsville for a 6:30 p.m. contest against the Sam Houston State Bearkats at Don Sanders Stadium.
The Texas A&M pitching staff is on pace to set a school record for strikeouts in 2019. With 500 strikeouts through 46 games, the Maroon & White are on pace to hang 608 Ks through the 56-game regular-season schedule. The school record for strikeouts in a season is 612 set by the 2010 squad, the only season the Aggies have ever reached the 600-K mark. With a sufficient run at the SEC Tournament and NCAA Championship, the Aggies could flirt with becoming just the second SEC team to post 700 strikeouts in a season, potentially joining Vanderbilt’s 2015 squad that recorded 703 strikeouts.
Chris Weber gets the start for the Aggies. The freshman southpaw has a 0.44 ERA in his last nine outings, allowing just two runs, one earned, on 15 hits and three walks while striking out 28 in 20.3 innings.
The Aggies rank in the top 25 in the nation in numerous pitching categories, including K-to-BB ratio (2nd - 3.42), strikeouts per nine Innings (3rd - 11.0), ERA (5th - 3.05), WHIP (9th - 1.19), shutouts (13th - 5), hits allowed per nine innings (17th - 7.47) and walks allowed per nine innings (21st - 3.21).
Individually, Asa Lacy ranks seventh in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings (13.92), ninth in strikeouts (100) and 12th in hits allowed per nine innings (5.15). John Doxakis ranks 24th in the nation in ERA (1.81) and 35th in K-to-BB ratio (1.29). Kasey Kalich ranks 11th in the nation in saves with 10.
With his next save, Kalich will move into a tie with Scott Centala (11 - 1988) for fourth place on the Texas A&M’s single-season saves chart. He is chasing the school record of 14 set by Jason Jester in 2013 and equaled by Nolan Hoffman in 2018.
Braden Shewmake enters the game in eighth place on the Aggies’ career RBI list. With 153 career ribbies, he needs four to tie Luke Anders (157 - 2006-09) for seventh place. Shewmake also moved into a tie for 10th place on Texas A&M’s career triples list with 10.
