This is the big one.

LSU baseball, who have tripped along to try and gain its footing during SEC play, gets a perfect opportunity to supremely bolster its resume for a possible NCAA Tournament berth as it welcomes No. 1 Texas A&M this weekend to Alex Box Stadium. The three-game series opens up Friday night (7 p.m., SEC Network), continues Saturday night (6:30 p.m., ESPNU) and wrapping up Sunday (1 p.m., SEC Network+).

The Tigers (29-17, 7-14 SEC) have won their last two conference series, but they've been against the worst teams in the league in Missouri and Auburn, and as it stands, Jay Johnson and company need SEC wins in a bad way.

Led by starters Gage Jump, Luke Holman and reliever Griffin Herring, LSU's pitching has steadied of late, paving the way for their team to claw their way back into the projected SEC Tournament field, if the season ended today.

Texas A&M (39-6, 15-6 SEC) can counter any team's quality pitching as it boasts one of the top potent offenses in college baseball. It's 426 runs on the season are the sixth-most by any team through this point in the season.

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Braden Montgomery is an SEC Player of the Year candidate, leading the Aggies with a .365 average with a whopping 73 RBIs, 53 runs scored and 23 home runs. But that's not the only pop in A&M's order. Jace LaViolette has also hit 23 home runs and has scored a team-high 68 times along with 61 RBIs.

LSU baseball clashes with Texas A&M in a pivotal SEC series starting Friday night at 7 p.m. at SEC Network

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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball live score updates vs Texas A&M