COLLEGE STATION -- Texas A&M puts an eight-game win streak on the line this weekend when the Aggies (11-2) host 25th-ranked Washington State (9-1) in a three-game set at Olsen Field ... game times are set for 6:35 p.m. on Friday, 2:05 p.m. on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. on Sunday.

A&M is coming off an impressive sweep of Penn State in mid-week action, one which saw the Aggies outscore the Nittany Lions, 24-3, and the pitching staff combine for 30 strikeouts in the two wins ... WSU, meanwhile, opened the season with a nine-game win streak before dropping its most recent contest, 4-1, to Utah last Sunday ... the series will mark the first away from home for the Cougars, who were an NCAA Regional team last season.

Texas A&M enters play with the Big 12’s best pitching staff (1.86 ERA) and second-best offensive attack (.339 average) ... the Aggies are in the midst of a 17-game homestand that will last through March 28.

GAMES 14-16

TEXAS A&M AGGIES (9-2) vs #25 WASHINGTON STATE COUGARS (9-1)

Olsen Field (7,053) • College Station, Texas

Friday, 6:35 PM / Saturday, 2:05 PM / Sunday, 1:05 PM

RADIO: WTAW-AM 1620 or KZNE-AM 1150 (check aggieathletics.com for details)

Dave South, Will Johnson, Scott Clendenin and Kevin Hurley

LIVE VIDEO: aggieathletics.com

LIVE AUDIO: aggieathletics.com • radioaggieland.com

LIVE STATS: aggieathletics.com

RANKINGS: WSU - 25th (Collegiate Baseball); A&M - RV (USA Today)

SERIES HISTORY: A&M leads, 7-4

A&M STREAKS: Won 1 / Last 5 (2-3) / Last 10 (6-4)

LAST MEETING: A&M 6, WSU 4 (Feb. 24, 2002 in College Station)

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS

• FRIDAY: #50 Barret Loux (Jr., RHP, 2-1, 1.06) vs #4 Chad Arnold (Jr., RHP, 2-0, 3.79)

• SATURDAY: #36 Ross Stripling (So., RHP, 3-0, 2.70) vs #32 Spencer Jackson (So., LHP, 2-0, 2.08)

• SUNDAY: #24 Nick Fleece (Jr., RHP, 1-0, 2.40) vs #26 James Wise (Jr., RHP, 1-0, 5.59)

FOLLOWING THE ACTION

• RADIO — Fans can listen to the games on either WTAW-AM 1620 or KZNE-AM 1150, depending on the men’s basketball team’s schedule at the Big 12 Championship this week ... stay tuned to aggieathletics.com for details … Dave South, Will Johnson, Scott Clendenin and Kevin Hurley will call the action all season long ... pregame show begins 15 minutes prior to first pitch.

• INTERNET — aggieathletics.com will offer live play-by-play and statistics along with free live video through Aggies All-Access.

• MOBILE PHONE — listen to the game on your iPhone, Blackberry or PDA free of charge ... log on to radioaggieland.com for more information.

• TWITTER — Follow the team all season long, including live in-game updates, at @aggie_baseball.

SERIES HISTORY: WASHINGTON STATE

Texas A&M leads the all-time series with Washington State, 7-4 ... the Aggies won the last meeting, on February 24, 2002 at Olsen Field, but have lost three of the last four ... all but three of the games between the schools have taken place in College Station, as A&M downed WSU in a 1988 tourney game in Fresno while the Cougars took two from the Aggies at the 2000 Spalding Baseball Fiesta in Albuquerque ... Washington State is A&M’s second most common Pac-10 opponent (11 games), trailing only Arizona (44 games).

MORE ON WASHINGTON STATE (9-1)

Washington State (Pullman, Washington) enters the weekend with a 9-1 record and a No. 25 ranking in the latest edition of the Collegiate Baseball Magazine poll ... the Cougars began the season with nine straight victories before dropping last Sunday’s game to Utah, 4-1 ... WSU returns 25 letterwinners, seven position starters and four starting pitchers from a 2009 squad that went 32-25, finished second in the Pac-10 at 19-8 and advanced to the NCAA Norman Regional ... the Cougars have made 18 NCAA appearances and have been to the College World Series four times (last 1976) ... Donnie Marbut is in his sixth season in Pullman with an overall record of 156-138 ... for more information visit wsucougars.com.

STATISTICAL COMPARISON: A&M vs WASHINGTON STATE

A look at how Texas A&M and Washington State stack up statistically entering the series...

A&M/WSU STATISTICAL COMPARISON

Category A&M WSU

Batting Average .339 .349

Runs Per Game 6.6 8.8

Home Runs 7 7

Stolen Bases 24-36 15-22

Earned Run Average 1.93 3.34

Opponent Batting Avg .203 .260

Strikeouts 104 63

Saves 3 3

Fielding Percentage .954 .984

UP NEXT

Texas A&M hosts Centenary on Tuesday evening before opening up Big 12 play at Olsen Field over the weekend against Texas Tech.

A LOOK BACK: PENN STATE

Texas A&M ran its win streak to eight games with a mid-week sweep of Penn State ... the Aggies defeated Penn State, 17-3 and 7-0 ... A&M out-hit the Nittany Lions, .338 to .197, while the pitching staff posted a 1.50 ERA, walked only two and struck out 30 in 18 innings of work ... of Texas A&M’s 24 RBIs, 16 came with two outs ... the Aggies got two golden starts from its pitching corps, as freshman Michael Wacha (6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 11 K) and senior Clayton Ehlert (7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K) picked up victories on Tuesday and Wednesday ... at the plate, Caleb Shofner drove in six and hit .500 in the sweep, while Brodie Greene (.444, 2 SB), Joe Patterson (.400, HR, 4 RBI) and Matt Juengel (.600, HR, 3 RBI) had big series as well.

NOTES AND NOTABLES

• Senior DH Joe Patterson is pacing a solid Aggie offensive attack, hitting a team-best .480 (24-for-50) with five doubles, two home runs, 11 RBIs and 14 runs scored ... Patterson, who saw a career-best 15-game hit streak come to an end last Sunday vs Winthrop, has reached safely in every game this season and has hit safely in all but one.

• Junior 1B Caleb Shofner leads the team in home runs (4) and RBIs (21) and sports a .408 average ... Shofner has driven in more runs over the first 13 games of a season than any Aggie in at least 10 years.

• Senior CF Brodie Greene is hitting .451 with five doubles, three triples, 10 RBIs and 18 runs scored, and carries a nine-game hit streak into the weekend

• Junior C KEVIN GONZALEZ is on a career-best eight-game hit streak, and sports a .375 average with two home runs and 11 RBIs.

• While struggling at times last season with two-out hitting (.270 average), the Aggies have started 2010 with a bang in that category ... A&M is hitting .382 this year with two outs, and 46 of its 89 RBIs (52 percent) have come with two down.

• The Aggie bullpen has been nothing short of outstanding through the first 13 games of the year ... through 33 appearances, the pen has combined for a 3-0 record and a miniscule 0.76 ERA, giving up just four earned runs (seven runs total) over 47.2 innings of work ... during that span, the group has allowed just 24 hits, walked just 17 and fanned 59 while holding hitters to a .150 average ... the pen did not allow an earned run over a span of 37.1 innings dating from February 20-March 9 ... on the year, only three of 29 inherited runners (10 percent) have scored.

• A&M’s weekend starting rotation of junior BARRET LOUX, sophomore ROSS STRIPLING and junior NICK FLEECE are a combined 6-1 with a 2.03 ERA on the very young season ... overall, Aggie starting pitching in 2010 is 8-2 with a 2.63 ERA and .233 opponent average, walking just nine and punching out 75 over 68 1/3 innings.

• Aggie pitching has held opponents to two runs or less in six games this spring.

• Junior ANDREW COLLAZO has hit in the leadoff spot in each of the last eight games, all A&M victories ... Collazo is hitting .303 over that span with four runs scored and is 3-for-4 in stolen bases.

• Junior KENNY JACKSON has appeared in and started six of the last seven games, and is hitting .529 in that span with seven runs scored ... Jackson carries an eight-game hit streak into the WSU series.

• Sophomore utility man SCOTT ARTHUR is hitting .364 over his last seven games with three doubles, four RBIs, six runs and three stolen bases.

• Sophomore two-way standout JOHN STILSON has made a huge impact in his very brief Aggie career ... Stilson has made six appearances in relief so far in 2010 and has already picked up two wins and two saves, and has punched out 25 in 17 innings of work ... he has allowed eight baserunners in 58 plate appearances—a bunt single on the infield vs SFA (2/24), a base hit vs Winthrop (3/7), and five free passes ... opponents are hitting .040 against Stilson ... he’s also gotten 11 at-bats, hitting .273 with a double, triple, two RBIs, two runs scored and two stolen bases.

• Texas A&M will play 21 of its first 24 games at home ... the Aggies’ lone trip out of College Station during the span was for last weekend’s QTI Baylor Classic in Waco ... A&M will play the entire month of March at Olsen Field until it closes the month on March 30 at Texas State ... the Aggies have nine regular-season games scheduled outside the state of Texas (Big 12 series at Kansas, Nebraska and OSU).

FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTER: #50 BARRET LOUX (JR-2L, rhp)

Named Big 12 Co-Pitcher of the Week after dominating outing against Winthrop (3/5) ... allowed only a first-inning double in seven strong innings, fanning a career-high 12 ... suffered the loss against Western Kentucky in Waco (2/26), despite allowing one earned run (5 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K) ... made his first career opening-day start last week against Seton Hall (2/19), picking up the victory (5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K) ... he finished 2009 with a 3-3 record and 4.12 ERA ... ranked fourth on the staff with 62 strikeouts over 48 innings of work and held opposing hitters to a .226 average ... punched out at least six batters in six outings.

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTER: #36 ROSS STRIPLING (SO-1L, rhp)

Has won all three starts this year, the first of his career ... struck out nine, did not walk a batter and allowed one earned run in 6 2/3 innings of work against Winthrop (3/6) ... earned the win at Baylor (2/27), allowing six hits and one earned run over five innings, while not walking a batter and punching out three ... got the win in his first career start last Saturday against Seton Hall (2/20 - 5 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K) ... emerged as a solid bullpen presence for the Aggies as a true freshman in ‘09 ... appeared in 13 games, all in relief, posting a 1-0 record and 2.51 ERA ... 13 relief outings ranked sixth on the staff .. allowed first earned run in his seventh appearance (March 18 vs New Mexico) ... struck out the first six batters he faced in his A&M career ... punched out 18 in just over 14 innings of work while walking just four ... played summer ball with the San Luis Obispo (Calif.) Blues of the wood-bat Sierra Baseball League ... went 2-2 with a 1.96 ERA in 36.2 innings of work ... fanned 56 batters and walked just 12.

SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTER: #24 NICK FLEECE (JR-2L, rhp)

Gave up just two hits and one run over five innings in most recent start (Winthrop, 3/7), but did not factor in the decision ... impressive against Texas State (2/28) in picking up first win of the year ... went five innings against the Bobcats, giving up seven hits, two runs and a walk while punching out four ... got a no decision in A&M’s 6-3 win over Seton Hall (2/20 - 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K), the first start of his career ... led the pitching staff with 26 appearances in 2009, all in relief, and a team-best five saves ... finished the year with a 4-1 record and a 3.54 ERA, punching out 32 batters in 28 innings of work ... allowed a run in just five of his 26 relief outings ... strikeout-to-walk ratio was 4.0 ... averaged 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings ... named Big 12 Co-Pitcher of Week (March 30), also pulled in numerous national honors ... picked up two wins and two saves, gave up 1 hit in 6.1 IP of shutout relief ... factored in to decision in all five of A&M’s wins from March 22-29 (save, win, save, win, save) ... began the season with 11 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings of relief.

LOUX EARNS BIG 12, NATIONAL HONORS

Texas A&M junior pitcher Barret Loux was named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Co-Pitcher of the Week by a select media panel on March 8.

Loux pitched a gem in the Aggies’ 7-0, series opening win over Winthrop on March 5. In seven shutout innings, the Houston native allowed one hit and two walks while striking out a career-high 12 batters on the night. Facing a team which averaged 10.1 runs per game and was hitting .386, Loux gave up a one-out double in the first and hit the next batter, then retired 19 of the last 21 batters he faced. During his performance, he allowed only two balls out of the infield, the first-inning double and a fourth-inning fly out. It marked the first conference weekly award of Loux’s career and the second this season for an Aggie.

One day later, he was named to the College Baseball Foundation’s National All-Star Lineup for his effort.