College Baseball Notebook: Aggies find new power source in Ted Burton in 6th straight SEC series win

Texas A&M might look back at its weekend series win over Georgia as its most memorable of the season.

The top-ranked Aggies not only came back from a 9-0 first-inning deficit to run-rule the Bulldogs 19-9 in the second game, they got a breakthrough offensive performance from one of their top newcomers.

Ted Burton hit two home runs in a 5-2 victory Friday and connected for two more in the record-tying comeback win Saturday, increasing his season total from four to eight.

Entering the weekend, 65% of the Aggies' home runs had come from the top three in the order — Gavin Grahovac (16), Jace LaViolette (22) and Braden Montgomery (23).

“That's what makes this team great,” said Burton, who hit 31 homers in 164 games at Michigan. “A lot of games it’s Jace, Braden, Gavin and even Caden (Sorrell). They're unbelievable. One through nine, you never know who's going to play the best and who's going to be the player of the game, and that makes it special.”

The Aggies have won six straight Southeastern Conference series, all against ranked opponents.

Burton hit tying and go-ahead home runs on Friday and went deep in the first and eighth innings on Saturday to help the Aggies win for the fourth time in program history when trailing by nine runs. The Aggies lost the series finale 5-4.

Aided by a strong wind blowing out of Blue Bell Park in College Station, A&M hit 11 homers in the series and Georgia hit eight.

“You don't want to try to hit home runs. You want them to be accidents," Burton said. “We know what can happen when they hit the jet stream.”

IN THE POLLS

Texas A&M (38-6, 15-6), Arkansas and Tennessee remained 1-2-3 in the D1Baseball.com and Baseball America rankings.

The Aggies play at LSU and Mississippi before finishing at home against Arkansas (37-7, 16-5), which won two of three against Florida and visits a top-10 Kentucky this week. Tennessee (37-7, 15-6) swept Missouri at home and has won 13 of its last 14.

GAME OF INCHES

Sam Houston State had the tying home run taken off the board at Louisiana Tech on Saturday because Walker Janek did not touch home plate after he connected with two outs in the eighth inning of a one-run game.

Janek came just inches short of touching the plate with his right foot, and Louisiana Tech appealed. Janek was called out following a video review, and the play was scored as a triple.

Louisiana held on to win 5-4 and swept the three-game series.

THOSE UTES ARE BEAUTS

Utah, which finished at the bottom of the Pac-12 last season, is coming off its first three-game sweep of UCLA and will go into May tied with Arizona for first.

The Utes (29-13, 14-7) have won 10 of 11 weekend series, are heading toward their first winning record since 2017 and bidding for their first Pac-12 title since 2016. From 2018-23, the Utes had finished no higher than second to last in the league.

CLEANUP SPOT

Vanderbilt's Jayden Davis was hit by a pitch in the face while attempting to bunt against Mississippi State on Saturday and will require eye surgery to repair orbital damage. ... Charlie Condon's homer against Texas A&M on Saturday was his NCAA-leading 29th of the year and 54th in 99 career games. ... Texas tied a program record with six homers in a 12-10 series-clinching win at Oklahoma on Sunday in a game that ended in the eighth inning because of lightning. The Longhorns hadn't gone deep six times in a game since 1998. ... Tennessee's bullpen allowed just one run in 13 innings against Missouri. ... Aiden May bounced back from a rough outing at California to strike out a career-high 14 and allow one infield hit over eight innings in a 2-0 win over Oregon on Friday.