Tag Archives: Oregon Ducks

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

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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

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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

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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

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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.”

Oregon Ducks women pull away late and down UTSA, 61-48

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By Jerry Briggs
For The JB Replay

The Oregon Ducks held UTSA scoreless for the last four minutes on Sunday and came away with a 61-48 victory in women’s college basketball over the UTSA Roadrunners.

With the game played at Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore., the Ducks outscored the Roadrunners 8-0 down the stretch, improving to 8-3 on the season.

The Roadrunners shot a season-low 26 percent from the field and lost for the second straight game, both against Power 5 competition. With the setback, they fell to 5-5 going into another road game set for Tuesday afternoon at Seattle.

Guard Chance Gray led the Ducks with 14 points. Priscilla Williams had 13 and Grace VanSlooten 10. The threesome offset the Roadrunners on the boards, which they dominated, 57-36.

For the UTSA, freshman guard Aysia Proctor from San Antonio-area Clemens High School notched a double double with 20 points and 11 rebounds. UTSA hit only 20 of 77 shots from the field.

A momentum-turning sequence for Oregon came when the Ducks, leading by six points early in the fourth quarter, turned it over on consecutive possessions.

The Roadrunners came up empty on both chances, once on a missed three by Siena Guttadauro and the other on a Proctor turnover.

Oregon’s Sofia Bell responded by knocking down a three-point bucket, boosting the Ducks into a 51-42 lead with 7:16 remaining.

Undeterred, the Roadrunners kept attacking, scoring four straight points.

Sidney Love did the honors with a follow-up off an offensive rebound and two free throws, pulling UTSA to within 51-46. From there, the teams traded baskets, with Idara Udo hitting a shot shot with four minutes left to make it 53-48.

Records

UTSA 5-5
Oregon 8-3

Coming up

UTSA at Seattle, Tuesday, 2 p.m.

Third quarter

Six-foot-eight Phillipina Kyei converted on a three-point play with eight seconds left, boosting Oregon into a 45-37 lead.

UTSA’s Aysia Proctor scored six and grabbed four rebounds in the quarter to keep the Roadrunners in the game.

At one point, she was knocked down while making a shot and had to be helped off. Sidney Love entered to shoot the free throw for her. Later, Proctor returned and hit a bucket with 55 seconds left.

First half

Utilizing superior size, the Ducks limited the Roadrunners to eight points for the first 13 minutes of the game and then held off a surge to lead 26-20 at halftime.

Priscillia Williams scored six points and Grace VanSlooten had five in the half for Oregon.

Meanwhile, freshman Aysia Proctor came off the bench to produce 12 points and five rebounds as the Roadrunners stayed in contention.

Proctor sparked a 12-5 run down the stretch at the end of the second period.

In the first half, UTSA outrebounded Oregon 30-19 but failed to generate much on the offensive end, shooting 21.6 percent from the field.