WELP, it’s starting to feel like put up or shut up time in Aggieland.

At the start of A&M’s conference slate, the schedule lined up nicely (read: what the f-edly), with the nation’s top three teams on the docket right off the bat. At the time, a reasonable hope would have been to emerge from that rough bit of the calendar with a 4-5 conference record; maybe 5-4, if the Ags had a few bounces go their way. The reasonable minimum expectation, however, would have been 3-6. These were, after all, the top three ranked teams in the entire country. Fast forward two weeks, and here we are, with the preseason top five Aggies out of the rankings, 1-5 in the SEC, and finally having lost to the Horns for the first time since 2017. Down bad? Down pretty bad.

But lo! And behold! We have a companion! Ole Miss, the defending National Champions and aforementioned No. 3 team in all the land, arrives in College Station coming off of consecutive sweeps at the hands of now-No. 4 Vandy and now-No. 3 Florida. Their staff ace, Hunter Elliott, suffered a sprained UCL in his Opening Day start against Delaware, and the rest of the staff still seem to be finding themselves. Aside from true freshman Brayden Jones, every single pitcher with double digit innings pitched this season has an ERA north of 4.00. That includes all three projected starters for this weekend. They’ve also walked more batters per nine innings than the Ags have, which feels impossible.

Again, this weekend feels like it’s just about put up or shut up time; for the Aggies and Rebels, alike. Both teams desperately need to pick up a series win. With Brett Minnich and Trevor Werner both back in the lineup, the hope is that the Aggie offense can finally start to gel. But on the mound, they badly need Nathan Dettmer to show some semblance of the guy we saw at times last season, and the bullpen to just show some got dang consistency.

Probable Starters

• Friday: Nathan Dettmer (1-3, 5.40 ERA) vs. Jack Dougherty (2-2, 6.07 ERA)
• Saturday: Justin Lamkin (2-1, 2.75 ERA) vs. Xavier Rivas, Jr. (4-2, 4.97 ERA)
• Sunday: TBA vs. JT Quinn (3-0, 5.48 ERA)

How to Watch

• Times: Friday, 6:00 pm | Saturday, 7:00 pm | Sunday, 1:00 pm
• TV: Saturday’s game will air on the SEC Network
• Live Video: All three games can be streamed on SEC Network +
• Radio: SportsRadio 1150 AM/The Zone 93.7 FM
• Live Stats: tamu.statbroadcast.com (desktop); tamustats.com (mobile)