Diamond Dogs travel to Texas to take on top-ranked Aggies

The Georgia Bulldog baseball team travels to Texas to take on the top-ranked team in the country: coach Wes Johnson and the Diamond Dogs play three weekend games against Texas A&M. Game one is tonight in College Station.

From Christopher Lakos, UGA Sports Communications…

The 17th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs begin a Southeastern Conference road series with top-ranked Texas A&M Friday with first pitch slated for 7:02 p.m. on SEC Network+ and the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network.

Georgia (30-10, 9-9 SEC) ranks third nationally with 101 home runs, a .602 slugging percentage and .442 on base percentage. The Bulldogs are batting .312 with a 5.08 team ERA and .974 fielding percentage. The Aggies enters the series batting .315 with 88 home runs, a .586 slugging percentage (fourth nationally) and .439 on base percentage (sixth nationally). Texas A&M (36-5, 13-5 SEC) owns a 3.71 ERA (seventh nationally) and a .981 fielding percentage (ninth nationally). In midweek action, Georgia outlasted No. 4 Clemson 4-3 in 15 innings in Athens while the Aggies outslugged Houston 13-11 in College Station. This season, the Aggies are 26-1 at home while the Bulldogs are 25-3 at Foley Field and 5-7 outside of Athens.

The Bulldog offense is headlined by sophomore All-America Charlie Condon. He leads the NCAA with a .477 batting average, 26 home runs, a 1.097 slugging percentage, 74 hits, and 170 total bases. He has a .583 on base percentage (third nationally) with 36 walks (17 intentional) and 56 RBI. Senior Corey Collins is enjoying a career-year at .387-12-38 and leads the country with a .593 on base percentage. The Aggies top hitters are junior Braden Montgomery (.370-22-68), freshman Gavin Grahovac (.333-15-51) and sophomore Jace LaViolette (.318-20-53). Condon, Montgomery and LaViolette were teammates this past summer on the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.

Series History: Texas A&M leads the series 13-7, and it didn’t start until the Aggies joined the SEC. Georgia has made three trips to College Station (2013, ‘16 and ‘21), and the Bulldogs are 1-8 with that lone win coming in series finale in 2021 by a score of 6-4. At Foley Field in Athens, the Bulldogs are 5-4 against A&M. Georgia is 1-1 against the Aggies at the SEC Tournament. Last year in Athens, the Aggies won a series 2-1.

Starting Rotation: Georgia’s rotation will feature sophomore right-hander Leighton Finley (3-1, 5.27 ERA) on Friday and sophomore right-hander Matthew Hoskins (0-0, 0.00 ERA). The Aggies will counter with redshirt-sophomore Ryan Prager (7-0, 2.55 ERA) and junior right-hander Tanner Jones (3-1, 4.67 ERA). Both teams are TBA for Sunday.

Radio/TV/Live Stats Links for Georgia-Texas A&M Series

Friday @ 7:02 p.m. ET (SEC Network+)

Radio: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston)

https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=4599&type=Live

TV: SEC Network+ (Will Johnson & Boomer White)

https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/b1845c0d-f3fb-4aaf-b548-7993f2210e19