Texas A&M came within one game of a national title in 2024, and is the consensus No. 1 team in America entering the 2025 season. So expectations can’t get any higher, right? Well, apparently wrong. On Thursday, D1 Baseball announced that Aggie OF Jace LaViolete is their Preseason SEC Player of the Year, and Aggie Pitcher Ryan Prager is their Preseason SEC Pitcher of the Year.
More preseason honors for 1⃣7⃣ & 1⃣8⃣ #GigEm x @d1baseball pic.twitter.com/JCRZo8uAJ7
— Texas A&M Baseball (@AggieBaseball) January 30, 2025
Of course, neither of these honors should surprise anyone. In his two years in Aggieland, the powerful LaViolette has smashed 50 home runs, batted in 141 runs while batting .297 with a .683 slugging percentage. He’s also one of the top prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft, so much so that another good season could vault him to the No. 1 overall pick.
Prager shined in his own right in 2024 for the Ags, going 9-1 with a 2.95 ERA while striking out 124 batters and walking only 20. He was particularly dominant in the College World Series, going 2-0 and striking out 10 batters while giving up only two runs in 10.2 innings pitched against Kentucky and Tennessee.
The Aggies will depend heavily on these two if they hope to make a return trip to Omaha in 2025. They’ll begin that journey on Friday, Feb. 14, as A&M hosts Elon for three-game series.