MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Texas A&M finds itself at or near the bottom of the SEC in virtually every offensive category this season.
The lone exception is sacrifice bunts, where the Aggies ranked second in the conference with 34 – another testimony to the team’s struggle to produce runs.
Despite that fact, there’s good reason the Aggies sport a top-15 RPI. Few teams in the country have a pitching staff capable of matching A&M. The Aggies have the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the country and rank second in strikeouts per nine innings, third in ERA, fifth in WHIP, ninth in hits allowed and 10th in shutouts.
“We’re very comfortable playing a low-scoring game,” said A&M coach Rob Childress. “We’ve done that, for the most part, all year long.”
It begins with starters John Doxakis and Asa Lacy, who are regarded by some as the best 1-2 punch in the country. Doxakis (7-3, 1.85 ERA, 106 K) will start against Duke while Lacy (7-4, 2.20 ERA, 123 K) gets the ball Saturday. Both are 6-foot-4 southpaws.
“We’ve signed some really talented left-handed pitching over the years and we never seem to get them to campus. They end up signing professionally,” Childress said. “We’ve been very fortunate the last two classes to get these guys to campus.”
Childress has trust in his bullpen, too. Kasey Kalich has 12 saves, which is the third-best single-season mark in A&M history. Bryce Miller often determines the outcome, pitching 41 innings in 31 appearances. And there is even another pair of lefties coming out of the pen in Joseph Menefee and Chandler Jozwiak.
“They’re the reason we’re in the postseason,” Childress said of his bullpen.
Shortstop Braden Shewmake is the one who makes things happen for the Aggie offense. He’d been hitting in the 3-hole since arriving on campus in 2017, but was recently moved to leadoff to get the offense moving. Batting .315 this season, he’s seven hits away from becoming the seventh player in A&M history with 250 career knocks.
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