Baseball travels to Texas for SEC bout
April 18, 2014
By Joshua Huff
Two teams caught in the SEC rat-race square off Friday as UK baseball heads to College Station, Texas, to face Texas A&M in a three-game weekend series.
Both teams enter the game tied in the SEC standings with a 7-8 conference record and coming off weekday victories.
No. 19 UK (24-13) steered from its usual high scoring, pitching its way to a 4-2 victory Tuesday against No. 10 Louisville. Meanwhile, Texas A&M (23-15) pounded Abilene Christian, 20-2. The Aggies are also coming off a series win last weekend against No. 18 Vanderbilt, a team that has beaten UK twice.
After a disappointing series loss to Missouri last weekend, UK is tied for fourth in the SEC East with Vanderbilt. Texas A&M is in a three-way tie for fourth in the West division.
The Cats will send Friday mainstay starter A.J. Reed to the mound to face an Aggies offense that is averaging 5.8 runs per game. The junior has a 6-1 record to go with a 2.29 earned run average and has a team-high 42 strikeouts. He is coming off a no-decision last Friday against Missouri where he threw a career-high 10 strikeouts.
On the season, Texas A&M is led by junior Cole Lankford who is hitting .329 with 33 RBIs this season. Freshman Nick Banks is hitting .320 with 12 RBIs this year.
The Cats will look to use the momentum gained from the Louisville win to even their SEC record.
UK has 15 conference games remaining this season.
“Every series in our conference is a big series,” Reed said. “Obviously you want to win every game but the main thing is to come out here and win the series.”
