College World Series: Breaking down the 8-team field

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

With the Men’s College World Series opening today, here are the eight teams and how they stacked up in wins and losses, through the regular season and in the postseason.

We’ll also include head-to-head records against opponents in their respective CWS brackets.

Additionally, look for each team’s top players and CWS history:

Friday’s games

(4) North Carolina vs. (12) Virginia

North Carolina

Record: 47-14
Record in NCAA tournament: 5-1
Record v Virginia: 1-2
Record v Tennessee: 0-0
Record v Florida State: 0-0
Record v ACC (regular season): 22-8
Record ACC tournament: 1-1
Record v SEC: 2-1

The skinny: Outfielders Vance Honeycutt and Casey Cook hope to lead the fourth-seeded Tar Heels to their first national title. Honeycutt is a possible first-round pick in the MLB draft. This is North Carolina’s 12th CWS appearance and its first since 2018.

Virginia

Record: 46-15
Record in NCAA tournament: 5-0
Record v North Carolina: 2-1
Record v Tennessee: 0-0
Record v Florida State: 0-1
Record v ACC (regular season): 18-12
Record ACC tournament: 1-1
Record v SEC: 3-0

The skinny: Virginia is making its third CWS appearance in the last three years and its seventh overall. The Cavaliers won their only title in 2015. Designated hitter Ethan Anderson and shortstop Griff O’Ferrall made all ACC first team.

(1) Tennessee vs. (8) Florida State

Tennessee

Record: 55-12
Record in NCAA tournament: 5-1
Record v Florida State:
Record v North Carolina: 0-0
Record v Virginia: 0-0
Record v SEC (regular season): 22-8
Record SEC tournament: 4-1
Record v ACC: 0-0

The skinny: Tennessee is in the CWS for the third time in four years and for the seventh time overall, with their best finish as runner up in 1951. The Vols are the No. 1 overall seed for the second time in three years. Second baseman Christian Moore has produced 101 hits, 32 home runs and 71 RBI. Blake Burke leads Tennessee in batting at .376. Moore is second at .375.

Florida State

Record: 47-15
Record in NCAA tournament: 5-0
Record v Tennessee: 0-0
Record v North Carolina: 0-0
Record v Virginia: 1-0
Record v ACC (regular season): 17-12
Record ACC tournament: 3-1
Record v SEC: 3-0

The skinny: Looking for their first national title, the Seminoles are in the CWS for the 24th time. They’ve been runner up in 1970, 1986 and 1999. James Tibbs III won ACC Player of the Year honors, and he joined pitcher Jamie Arnold on the all-conference first team. Tibbs has powered the Seminoles with 28 HR and 94 RBI. Cam Smith leads the team in batting with a .402 average, with Tibbs second at .374.

Saturday’s games

Kentucky v North Carolina State

Kentucky

Record: 45-14
Record in NCAA tournament: 5-0
Record v North Carolina State 0-0
Record v Florida: 2-1
Record v Texas A&M: 0-0
Record v SEC (regular season): 22-8
Record SEC tournament: 2-1
Record v ACC: 1-0

North Carolina State

Record: 38-21
Record in NCAA tournament: 5-1
Record v Kentucky 0-0
Record v Texas A&M 0-0
Record v Florida 0-0
Record vs. ACC (regular season): 18-11
Record ACC tournament: 1-1
Record vs. SEC: 3-1

Florida v Texas A&M

Texas A&M

Record: 49-13
Record in NCAA tournament: 5-0
Record v Florida 1-2
Record v Kentucky 0-0
Record v North Carolina State 0-0
Record v SEC (regular season): 19-11
Record SEC tournament: 0-2
Record v ACC: 0-0

Florida

Record: 34-28
Record in NCAA tournament: 6-1
Record v Texas A&M: 2-1
Record v Kentucky 1-2
Record v North Carolina State 0-0
Record v SEC (regular season): 13-17
Record SEC tournament: 0-1
Record v ACC: 4-4

Aggies will need to adjust without Shane Sdao in the College World Series

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Media outlets are reporting that injured Texas A&M pitcher Shane Sdao will not be available for the Aggies as they open their national-title quest this weekend at the Men’s College World Series.

Outlets at texags.com, the Bryan-College Station Eagle and the Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News reported on the development regarding Sdao from A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle’s media availability Wednesday morning.

The coach told reporters that the Aggies will need to make adjustments to compensate for the absence of Sdao and Braden Montgomery in the lineup. The CWS starts on Friday, with third-seeded A&M (49-13) opening play on Saturday at Charles Schwab Stadium.

In the past two weeks, the Aggies have swept through the first two weekends of play in the NCAA tournament with a 5-0 record. They beat Grambling, Texas and Louisiana on the opening weekend.

Last weekend, the Aggies followed with a two-game sweep of Oregon at the Super Regional. Montgomery was lost in Game 1 on Saturday against Oregon with a lower leg injury. Sdao was lost in Sunday’s Game 2 with an apparent arm problem.

A&M acknowledged on Saturday that Montgomery, a highly-rated prospect for the MLB draft later this summer, would be lost to the team for the remaining days of his final college season.

Schlossnagle confirmed on Wednesday that Sdao won’t pitch again until next year.

“Braden’s having surgery this morning in North Carolina,” Schlossnagle told reporters. “He’s going to join us (in Omaha), probably in the next couple of days. Shane was evaluated. He won’t pitch again this year.”

Schlossnagle said the long-term prognosis on Sdao is good.

“I think they’re going to wait two weeks and let some swelling go down and re-evaluate him one more time just to be sure,” the coach said. “But it looks a lot better than expected for Shane, for next year.”

Ryan Prager is expected to start for A&M against Florida on Saturday. But without Sdao, the starter for the Aggies’ Game 2 has yet to be announced. The coach said that not having Sdao changes “a lot” of the team’s plan for the pitching rotation.

“He had been as effective as any starting pitcher on our team,” Schlossnagle said. “So, we’ll have to adjust a little bit. We’re not ready to announce that yet. Justin (Lamkin) threw the one inning in the regional and didn’t pitch in the Super Regional. So, he’s ready to go.

“He had a couple of good side sessions this week. But the goal obviously is to stay in the winners bracket so you don’t have to play as much. That would help. But, we’ll have to have some other guys step to the forefront.”

The Aggies shuffled Sunday’s lineup, inserting Kaeden Kent at second base and moving things around to compensate for the loss of Montgomery, one of the best players in NCAA baseball this year.

Kent, the son of former major league star Jeff Kent, responded with a grand slam in the Aggies’ 15-9 Super Regional clincher against the Ducks.

“That’s one of the things I challenged the pitching staff about,” Schlossnagle said. “You know, who’s going to be the Kaeden Kent — or more — of the pitching staff? Somebody that hasn’t pitched a lot is going to have to pitch well for us to stay up there (in Omaha) for a long time.”

Winning the CWS will require the Aggies to play and prepare and play again and again over an 11-day period. The title round is scheduled for June 22-24. Here’s a look at the CWS schedule for the first two days:

Friday’s games

North Carolina vs. Virginia, 1 p.m.
Tennessee vs. Florida State, 6 p.m.

Saturday’s games

Kentucky vs. North Carolina State, 1 p.m.
Texas A&M vs. Florida, 6 p.m.

Former Boerne Greyhounds pitcher Zane Badmaev gets his day in the sun for the Omaha-bound Texas A&M Aggies

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Whether former Boerne High School pitcher Zane Badmaev will get a chance to take the mound for the Texas A&M Aggies in the College World Series remains, at the moment, as a question without an answer.

In his first season with the Aggies, the redshirt senior transfer from Tarleton State University appeared in only 16 games and pitched 23 and 1/3 innings.

He pitched all of seven innings in three games in Southeastern Conference play and didn’t get on the field in the NCAA playoffs until Sunday night at home against the Oregon Ducks.

Against Oregon, Badmaev stated his case to be considered as a CWS bullpen option, entering Game 2 of the Bryan-College Station Super Regional in the bottom of the sixth. He retired three of four batters without yielding a hit or a run.

When he walked back to the dugout with the rest of his teammates, the Aggies trailed 8-4. By the time the Aggies had finished batting in the top of the seventh, they had exploded for nine runs and were leading 13-8.

Thus, Badmaev became the pitcher of record.

By the end of the night, with the Aggies eventually celebrating a 15-9 victory, the one and only player from the San Antonio area on the Texas A&M roster became the winning pitcher in a game that vaulted the program to its eighth College World Series.

“We did not play well at all early,” Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said in postgame interviews. “Could not (find) a pitcher to throw strikes and (we) threw the ball around the field a little bit. But, Zane Badmaev was the winning pitcher today, right?

“Pretty awesome for him.”

Notable

Officials announced that Texas A&M will open in the College World Series on Saturday at 6 p.m. against Florida.

Texas A&M baseball earns a trip to the College World Series

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Smacked around early by the Oregon Ducks, the third-seeded Texas A&M Aggies rallied from a multi-run deficit for the second time in two days Sunday night, claiming a 15-9 victory for a two-game sweep at the Bryan-College Station Super Regional.

As a result, the Aggies won for the 49th time this season and earned a berth in the College World Series.

At one point in the second game of the Super Regional, A&M trailed by five runs against an Oregon team looking to win and force a third and deciding matchup Monday in the best-of-three series.

Aggies sophomore Kaeden Kent decided he didn’t want that to happen, so he belted a grand slam to highlight a nine-run seventh inning.

The Ducks figured prominently in their own demise, walking six and hitting a batter to fuel the outburst that left them trailing 13-8.

With injured star Braden Montgomery not available, the Aggies shuffled their lineup, moving pieces around and adding Kent, a sophomore from Lake Travis, to play second base. He finished three for five with five RBI.

Hayden Schott also enjoyed a big night, going four for four with four RBI. Schott belted a two-run homer in the eighth to make it 15-8.

A&M players will pack their bags in a few days for a trip to Omaha, Neb. They’ll play in the CWS for the eighth time in program history in search of the program’s first national title.

Records

Oregon 40-21
Texas A&M 49-13

Coming up

The College World Series is scheduled for June 14-24 at Charles Schwab Stadium in Omaha, Neb.

Notable

In the Super Regional opener on Saturday, the Aggies lost one of their best players to injury in the first inning and then rallied from a three-run deficit to beat the Ducks 10-6.

After the game, A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said Braden Montgomery likely would be out for the season with a lower leg injury.

Oddly, the same sort of thing happened Sunday night, only this time the injury bug claimed one of A&M’s starting pitchers. Shane Sdao was relieved with one out in the bottom of the first after giving up a home run to Chase Meggers.

With Brad Rudis on the mound for the Aggies, the Ducks added round-trippers by Drew Smith and Anson Aroz to give them three homers in three consecutive at bats.

Super Regional: Aggies play for a berth in the CWS tonight

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Undefeated in the NCAA playoffs, the third-seeded Texas A&M Aggies will play the Oregon Ducks tonight at Blue Bell Park in Game 2 of the best-of-three, Bryan-College Station Super Regional.

A win would send the Aggies to the College World Series.

A&M opened the NCAA tournament last week by defeating Grambling (La.), 8-0 and then beating Texas 4-2 in 11 innings and Louisiana, 9-4. With the regional title in hand, Coach Jim Schlossnagle’s squad earned a berth in the next round against the Oregon Ducks.

The Aggies opened the Super Regional by rallying for a 10-6 victory over Oregon on Saturday afternoon. Aggies star Braden Montgomery suffered a serious injury to his lower leg in the first inning and is expected to be out for the season.

Records

Oregon 40-20
Texas A&M 48-13

Coming up

If Oregon wins tonight, a deciding Game 3 would be played on Monday. The time is to be determined.

Notable

In the wake of Montgomery’s season-ending injury, Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle turned in a starting lineup for Game 2 of the Super Regional that included:

Jackson Appel at catcher, Jace LaViolette in right field, Gavin Grahovac at third base, Hayden Schott at designated hitter, Ted Burton at first base, Caden Sorrell in left field, Ali Camarillo at shortstop, Kaeden Kent at second base and Travis Chestnut in center field.

Shane Sdao is the starting pitcher.

NCAA Super Regional: Texas A&M rallies past Oregon after losing Montgomery to injury

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

In the bottom of the first inning, the third-seeded Texas A&M Aggies started to brush up against some unwanted adversity when star outfielder Braden Montgomery limped off the field with a lower leg injury.

By the top of the second, starting pitcher Ryan Prager was pulled from the game in the midst of a four-run outburst by the Oregon Ducks. The bottom half of the second? A&M’s fortune was no better as a base runner was unceremoniously picked off at second base.

Fortunately for the Aggies, they had seven more innings to make amends, and they did just that, erasing what had been an early three-run deficit to post a 10-6 victory on Saturday in the opener of the Bryan-College Station Super Regional.

With the victory, A&M moved to within one win of a trip to the College World Series.

The Aggies showed significant grit and determination in Game One of the Super Regional against the Ducks. Right-handed reliever Chris Cortez pitched 5 and 2/3 scoreless innings for the victory. He allowed only two hits and walked two while striking out 10.

Closing out the game, lefty Evan Aschenbeck retired four straight batters. Combined, Cortez and Aschenbeck totally out-pitched the Ducks, who yielded 12 hits, walked nine and threw two wild pitches.

Records

Oregon 40-20
Texas A&M 48-13

Notable

Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said in the postgame that he thinks Braden Montgomery is out for the year.

Quotable

“Not sure I’ve ever been more proud of a team,” Schlossnagle said in his opening postgame remarks. “You know, emotionally, Prager goes out. Doesn’t have a great first inning. Then we battle back into it. And then, you know, the injury. I was telling these guys it’s the third time it’s happened to me in my career. Right at the tail end of the season, or in the postseason, you know, lost one of our best players. Happened at Tulane. Happened at TCU with Luken Baker. And then to get down 6-3. Just the emotions, that, I think, a lot of teams fold … Super proud of our club.”

Coming up

Oregon at Texas A&M, Sunday, 6:30 p.m. Game 3 of the Super Regional, if necessary, would be played on Monday.

Losing Montgomery

In the top of the first, the Ducks surged into a 2-0 lead against Aggies ace Ryan Prager on a two-run homer off the bat of Anson Aroz. The Aggies retaliated immediately against Ducks starting pitcher RJ Gordon.

Leading off, Gavin Grahovac walked. After Jace LaViolette flied out, Montgomery walked to put two runners on. Jackson Appel followed with an RBI single, scoring Grahovac and moving Montgomery to second base.

On the next play, Ted Burton singled to left field. Montgomery came around third and appeared to hesitate before breaking for home. As he started to slide, he turned his right foot just before he was tagged out by Oregon catcher Bennett Thompson.

Montgomery stayed down until help from the A&M staff arrived to place a boot on his foot and help him off the field. In the short term, the loss of a projected first-round choice in the upcoming Major League Baseball draft didn’t hurt A&M.

The Aggies won easily. But for a team with championship aspirations, the loss of their top offensive player could prove costly.

Montgomery entered the Super Regional leading the Aggies with a .322 batting average, a .733 slugging percentage and a 1.185 OPS. He ranks second on the team in home runs with 27 and leads in RBI with 85.

Suffering misfortune

Despite Montgomery’s early exit, the Aggies scored three runs in the bottom of the first and held a 3-2 lead. It didn’t last long. The Ducks continued to hit Prager in the second inning, starting a rally in the top of the second that led to four runs and a 6-3 lead.

Bouncing back

The Aggies didn’t let the early struggles get them down. They retaliated with one run in the third inning, three in the fourth and three more in the fifth. For the game, Jackson Appel and Hayden Schott both produced three hits. Appel scored twice and drove in two. California native Schott, one of a few A&M players from the West Coast, had three RBI.

NCAA Super Regionals: Texas A&M hosts Oregon today

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Based on seedings in the NCAA baseball tournament a few weeks ago, the Texas A&M Aggies will still need to win a few more games in order to live up to expectations as one of the best teams in the nation.

The third-seeded Aggies didn’t dominate every game they played last weekend in the regional round, but they did win three in a row in their home stadium to advance, just as everyone expected.

Their hitting may not have been as prodigious as they would have liked, but then again, they did enough things well on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park to take down Grambling (La.), arch-rival Texas and Louisiana.

Once again, A&M will be favored heavily this weekend. The Aggies host the Oregon Ducks in the best-of-three Bryan-College Station Super Regional, hoping to utilize a home-field advantage to earn a berth in the College World Series.

In the Ducks, the Aggies will face a program that has overachieved in the postseason in each of the past two seasons.

Oregon came into the postseason with a modest RPI of 52nd in the nation. The Ducks went on to post a 3-0 record at the Santa Barbara Regional, marking the second-straight season that the program has advanced with a road sweep on the first weekend.

Entering play as the region’s third seed, they won 5-4 in 11 innings against San Diego, with Bryce Boettcher slamming a solo home run in the top of the 11th, followed by Ducks’ reliever Logan Mercado working the bottom half to secure the victory.

Oregon, feeling the momentum, rode pitching and defense to two more victories by narrow margins, clinching the regional. They posted back-to-back wins over host UC Santa Barbara, topping the region’s top-seeded Gauchos, 2-1 and 3-0.

Last year, Oregon won three straight in Nashville, beating Xavier, national No. 3 Vanderbilt and Xavier again to reach the Super Regional round. On the next weekend, matched against Oral Roberts and playing at home, the Ducks struck out.

They won the opener but lost the next two, falling short of a CWS trip.

Records

Oregon 40-19
Texas A&M 47-13

Probable starters

Oregon’s RJ Gordon (7-5, 4.73) vs. Texas A&M’s Ryan Prager (8-1, 2.53).

Schedule

Saturday: Oregon at Texas A&M, 1 p.m.
Sunday: Oregon at Texas A&M, 6:30 p.m.
Monday: (if necessary, time TBA)

Players to watch

For A&M, Stanford transfer Braden Montgomery was six for 15 with five RBI in three games at the NCAA Bryan-College Station Regional, including a home run in the series-clinching win against Louisiana. Montgomery, considered one of the top prospects in the upcoming 2024 MLB draft, leads the Aggies with a .322 batting average, a .733 slugging percentage and a 1.185 OPS. He ranks second on the team in home runs with 27 and leads in RBI with 85.

For Oregon, starting pitchers RJ Gordon, Grayson Grinsell and Kevin Seitter had back-to-back-to-back dominant performances at the Santa Barbara Regional. The three combined to go 2-0 with a 1.17 ERA while allowing just three runs on 13 hits. They struck out 19 and walked nine in 23 innings. In the opener, Gordon allowed three runs on six hits in 7.0 innings while leaving the game with a 4-1 lead

Notable

Texas A&M’s coach is Jim Schlossnagle. In his third year in College Station, he is 129-60 with the Aggies. Schlossnagle has led A&M into the NCAA tournament three straight years, including twice to the Super Regionals.

In 2022, the Aggies won a Super Regional at home, sweeping two games from Louisville. At the College World Series, they lost the opener but bounced back to win twice before bowing out with a 2-2 record.

Schlossnagle previously worked as a head coach at UNLV for two seasons and at TCU for the next 18. He took the Rebels to one NCAA tournament and the Horned Frogs to 15. With the Frogs, Schlossnagle led seven teams to the Super Regionals and five to the College World Series.

In both 2015 and 2016, Schlossnagle’s Horned Frogs eliminated the Aggies in the Super Regional round, the first time in Fort Worth and the next one in College Station.

Oregon’s coach is Mark Wasikowski. In his sixth year in Eugene, he is 165-89 with the Ducks. Wasikowski, tasked with matching the prowess of in-state rival Oregon State, has led Oregon into the NCAA playoffs four straight years.

Quotable

Braden Montgomery, on the difference between baseball in the Pac-12 and the Southeastern Conference:

“The biggest difference I see is the depth in the teams that we’ve played against. I feel like … some of the pitching staffs or some of the teams we’d see last year in the Pac 12, there’s just a bigger difference from the top and the bottom (in the standings).
Whereas, like they say, in the SEC it’s a gauntlet, where every team truly has the chance to beat any other team. Not to say that it’s not like that in the Pac 12, but it’s … (it has) different layers to it, I guess.”

NCAA Super Regionals: Can the underdog Purple Aces keep it going against the Tennessee Vols?

Best-of-three NCAA Super Regionals in baseball open today. Here’s a schedule and a quick glance at the matchups:

Today’s games

Evansville (38-24) at No. 1 Tennessee (53-11)

Eye on the underdogs: The Wes Carroll-coached Purple Aces are the lowest-rated team in the Super Regionals. Seeded fourth last weekend at Greenville, N.C., they rolled behind DH Kip Fougerousse and OF Mark Shallenberger. Fougerousse had four HR and seven RBI in the regional. Shallenberger had the game-winning HR in Monday’s 6-5 win over host East Carolina.

That’s a fact: Christian Moore has hit 29 home runs to lead the Vols, who have hit 159 round-trippers as a team. Tennessee entered the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed.

UConn (35-24) at No. 8 Florida St. (45-15)

Eye on the underdogs: The Huskies entered the Norman Regional seeded third among four teams and proceeded to win with defense, winning three of four in the home park of the Oklahoma Sooners. INF Paul Tammaro, INF Bryan Padilla, 1B Maddix Dalena and OF Caleb Shpur all made key plays. UConn played error-free baseball until it committed its first error in the ninth inning of the final game.

That’s a fact: Former Texas basketball coach Tom Penders is the uncle of UConn baseball coach Jim Penders. Tom Penders played in two NCAA tournaments at UConn in the 1960s, including the 1965 College World Series.

Kansas St. (35-24) at No. 12 Virginia (44-15)

Eye on the underdogs: Kansas State finished 15-15 and tied for sixth with Kansas in the Big 12 regular season. The Wildcats followed with a 1-2 showing in the conference tournament. Last weekend, they registered one of the biggest surprises on opening weekend by sweeping all three games at the Fayetteville Regional. As K-State dispatched Louisiana Tech, No. 5 overall seed Arkansas and Southeast Missouri, Kaelen Culpepper emerged as the regional’s MVP.

That’s a fact: Texas Rangers reliever Josh Sborz played at Virginia under Cavaliers coach Brian O’Connor. O’Connor led Virginia to the College World Series title in 2015.

West Virginia (36-22) at No. 4 North Carolina (45-14)

Eye on the underdogs: Inconspicuous as a No. 3 seed at the Tucson Regional, the Mountaineers followed strong starting pitching to three straight victories. Derek Clark went the distance on opening day against Dallas Baptist and Tyler Switalski followed the next day by working into the eighth inning against Grand Canyon (Ariz). Sophomore Logan Sauve and junior JJ Wetherholt had three hits apiece in a clinching victory over Grand Canyon in the title round.

That’s a fact: The Mountaineers are making their first appearance in the Super Regional opposite the powerful Tar Heels, who are 35-3 at home this season. Heels outfielders Vance Honeycutt and Casey Cook are regarded as two of the top players in the conference.

Friday’s games

No. 15 Oregon St. (45-14) at No. 2 Kentucky (43-14)

No. 10 NC State (36-20) at No. 7 Georgia (42-15)

Florida (32-28) at No. 6 Clemson (44-14)

Oregon (40-18) at No. 3 Texas A&M (47-13)

Aggies claim the NCAA College Station Regional title

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The Texas A&M Aggies hit five home runs to smash through a 25-year-old record for homers in a season, building a big lead early and then rolling to a 9-4 victory over the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Sunday for the title in the NCAA College Station Regional.

A&M (47-13) swept through three games undefeated to win the regional. The Aggies will advance to Super Regional round next week against the Oregon Ducks, who won the Santa Barbara Regional.

A&M, as the No. 3 national seed, is expected to host Oregon in a best-of-three series for a berth in the College World Series.

Caden Sorrell, Braden Montgomery, Hayden Schott, Ali Camarillo and Gavin Grahovac all belted homers for the Aggies, who boosted their season total to 130 in 60 games. The previous school record was 128 in 1999.

Louisiana (42-20) battled to the end, scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth before A&M closed it out. The Aggies beat Grambling 8-0 on Friday, downed Texas 4-2 on Saturday night and then took down Louisiana, the region’s second seed.

Earlier in the day, the Cajuns won 10-2 to eliminate the Texas Longhorns from the tournament.

Records

Louisiana 42-20
Texas A&M 47-13

Coming up

Oregon vs. Texas A&M next week in the Super Regional round.

Aggies break a 25-year-old team season home run record

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The Texas A&M Aggies have hit five home runs on Sunday night to break the school’s 25-year-old team season record. The Aggies have hit 130 on the season, beating the previous mark of 128 set in 1999.

With the Aggies playing the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for the title in the NCAA College Station Regional at Blue Bell Park, Caden Sorrell, Braden Montgomery, Hayden Schott, Ali Camarillo and Gavin Grahovac have all belted homers.

Sorrell and Montgomery went deep in the fourth inning, Schott hit one in the fifth, Camarillo in the seventh and Grahovac in the ninth. Montgomery has 27 for the year and Grahovac 22, which is an A&M freshman record.

Coming into the regional round of the NCAA tournament, the Aggies had hit 124 home runs as a team.

They didn’t hit any in an 8-0 victory over the Grambling Tigers on opening day Friday. They hit one on Saturday, by Sorrell, in a 4-2 victory over Texas.

With five against Louisiana, A&M now has 130 homers in 60 games. The 1999 squad that hit 128 featured Daylan Holt, who belted 34 that year for the school’s individual season record.

A&M is leading Louisiana 9-1 in the ninth inning. If the Aggies win, they advance to the Super Regional round next week.