This article is part of our College Baseball Picks series.
College Baseball Best Bets for Friday, May 17
Hagen Smith continued his masterful season last night with six shutout innings, two hits and 14 punchouts at one of the best lineups in America. Unfortunately, somebody didn't tell his offense they need to score some runs in order to win. Let's try and get on the board today.
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Arkansas Razorbacks (+105) @ Texas A&M Aggies (-135) | Total: N/A
We're going back to the same game for Friday. It was an all-time classic pitching showdown. Only one run scored in 11 innings of work, and Smith and Ryan Prager were as good as advertised. The old school pitching duel was a shock to the college baseball system that usually features tons of runs scored. However, I'm not sure that's how the rest of the series unfolds.
In addition to losing a Hagen Smith gem for the first time all season, Arkansas burned some important bullpen arms like freshman closer Gabe Gaeckle (a potential first rounder in 2026) and Jake Faherty. Gaeckle threw north of 50 pitches, so there's a good chance he's done for the weekend. The Razorbacks will need a combination of arms today to patch this one up.
They're projecting sophomore Gage Wood to toe the rubber. In 42 career appearances in college, Wood has only made one start, today will be his second. He's been reliable this year with a 3.03 ERa and 44 K's to only seven walks in 29.2 innings of work. The thing is that he's typically only a two-four inning kind of guy. It's likely the goal for Woods today is four or five and then they turn it over to Will McEntire, who walked in the winning run last night. Ark has plenty of pitching options, but eating up innings against an elite Aggie offense could be a problem. The bigger problem is the fact that Arkansas's offense is actually one of the worst I've ever seen for a title contender. The Hogs lineup was never expected to be that of the Tennessee Volunteers, which is fine. But if that's not your identity, then you have to be situationally sound, and that's not what Arkansas is. After last night's loss, their lineup is now 49-267 (.184) with RISP during SEC play this year. For the Hogs to have a chance today, the pitching needs to replicate what it did on Thursday.
Most people though, would fully expect the thunderous 1-3 trio of Gavin Grahovac, Jace Laviolette, and Braden Montgomery to do a little better than the combined 2-14 they showed in game one. Laviolette racked up the only two hits.
For A&M, they have yet to announce a pitcher, but it really doesn't matter. The Razorbacks offense is so putrid they could probably pick a fan out of the 12th man section to come out and shove five scoreless. The Aggies burned top reliever Evan Aschenbeck last night, so he also may be cooked for the weekend. The only real reliable pen arm they have left Chris Cortez. Either way, I think today is a huge advantage for TAMU. I was adamant early in the week that the matchup was too heavily favored for A&M. I had them penciled in taking games two and three, but after last night's win, it seems like a good shot they might sweep.
It's basically a foregone conclusion now that I can rip up my preseason future of Arkansas O20.5 SEC regular season wins (at 19 right now), and to win the SEC regular season title. This will be a statement win for the Aggies today. It should be a lot higher scoring than 1-0.
Pick: Aggies ML -135
