Preview: Gators Softball Back on the Road to Face Aggies

Florida Gators softball hits the road again for their fifth SEC series of the season. The sixth-ranked Gators are in College Station, Texas to face the Texas A&M Aggies this weekend.

Texas A&M pushed Florida to the brink of elimination the last time these squads met. Their final game of the 2018 Gainesville Super Regional was one for the history books.

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Walton on Florida’s history with Texas A&M:

The Gators are winners of 17 out of the last 19 games against the Aggies since their initial postseason meeting in the 2007 College Station Super Regional.

Walton on traveling to College Station:

Scouting the Aggies

The Aggies are cellar dwellers in the Southeastern Conference coming into this series. They are tied with Mississippi State for last in the conference at 3-9. Jo Evans’s team has lost seven conference games by six or more runs.

Although, they haven’t had the easiest draw when it comes to conference foes. Three of A&M’s past four opponents rank within the top 15 in the RPI rankings with the highest being LSU at number four.

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Offensively, the Aggies are similar to Florida. They are ranked near each other in the bottom quarter in categories like runs scored, team batting average, hits and on-base percentage. However, A&M batters strikeout the least in the SEC (124) while Florida’s 209 are second-most.

What sets the two apart is pitching. Texas A&M has the worst team earned run average in the league at 3.89. Aggies pitchers have issued 139 walks to just 158 strikeouts against their opponents. That 1.14 ratio is 218th in the country.

Walton on keeping the team focus:

Chasing History

Gator ace Kelly Barnhill earned her 1,000th career strikeout back on March 20. She sits at 1,079 at this juncture in the season. If she keeps up her pace over the weekend, there is a possibility she will break Stacey Nelson’s 1,116 mark during the home series against Alabama.

Kendyl Lindaman is slugging .732 this season which would plant her at the fifth-best percentage in a season in Florida history. Additionally, Sophia Reynoso has reached on a hit by pitch 18 times. That matches Nicole DeWitt’s for fifth-best in a single season as well.

Florida and Texas A&M will kick it off on Friday at 7 p.m. All three games can be heard on WGGG (92.1 FM/1230 AM) & WMOP (100.1 FM/900 AM) while Saturday and Sundays games can be streamed on SEC Network+.