A&M defeats Kentucky, advances undefeated into MCWS semifinals

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Jackson Appel and Hayden Schott ignited a five-run sixth inning and lefthander Ryan Prager took a no hitter into the seventh Monday night, as the Texas A&M Aggies rolled to a 5-1 victory over the Kentucky Wildcats to remain undefeated at the Men’s College World Series.

Looking for their first national title in their eighth trip to Omaha, Neb., the third-seeded Aggies have fashioned a 2-0 start in the MCWS for the first time. With wins over Florida and second-seeded Kentucky, A&M has moved into the semifinals needing only one victory to advance to the championship round.

Now with one loss in two games, Kentucky is scheduled to play Florida, also 1-1, in the losers bracket Tuesday. The winner is scheduled to get another shot at A&M on Wednesday night in the semifinals. A&M will need to be beaten twice for its opponent to reach the finals.

A&M star outfielder Jace LaViolette came out of the game against Kentucky with an apparent injury after his team broke it open in the sixth with five runs, four hits and three walks off Kentucky pitching, including four runs charged to starter Mason Moore.

LaViolette, whose catch at the wall robbed Florida of a home run in a 3-2 A&M victory on Saturday night, led off with a walk and moved to third base when Appel doubled down the right field line. It was A&M’s best scoring opportunity of the night, and the Aggies didn’t waste it.

Both LaViolette and Appel scored on Hayden Schott’s two-run single to left to make it 2-0. The first glimpse of LaViolette’s discomfort showed when he limped in from third to home plate.

Subsequently, the Aggies kept it going when Ted Burton walked. One out later, with runners at first and second, Ali Camarillo stroked an RBI double over the head of Kentucky right fielder James McCoy. A&M caught a break when McCoy appeared out of position to make the catch.

The play left A&M with a 3-0 lead and runners at second and third base. Kaeden Kent slapped a two-RBI single to left to make it 5-0.

Ryan Nicholson tied the Kentucky single-season, school record with his 23rd home run, a solo shot, off A&M reliever Josh Stewart in the bottom of the ninth.

Records

Kentucky 46-15
Texas A&M 51-13

Coming up

Tuesday: North Carolina v Florida State, 1 p.m., elimination game; Kentucky v Florida, 6 p.m., elimination game.

Wednesday’s semifinals: Tennessee v North Carolina/Florida State, 1 p.m.; Texas A&M v Kentucky/Florida, 6 p.m.

Notable

Texas A&M’s Ryan Prager bounced back from a poor outing in the Super Regional round to notch the victory over Kentucky, improving his record to 9-1. Prager worked 6 and 2/3 shut out innings, giving up only two hits. He walked one and struck out four.

In the Super Regional opener against Oregon, the redshirt sophomore from Dallas Hillcrest lasted only one and two thirds innings. He yielded six runs on seven hits, including a homer, after which the Aggies rallied for a 10-6 victory.

Offensively, Hayden Schott led the Aggies in the MCWS matchup against Kentucky.

The graduate student from Newport Beach, Calif., went three for five and had two RBI. Schott has hit safely in six of seven NCAA tournament games. He is four for eight in the CWS and has produced 13 hits in 30 at bats in the tournament.

Kaeden Kent, a sophomore from Lake Travis and the son of former major league star Jeff Kent, also continued to shine for the Aggies. Kent is eight for 15 in the tournament and seven for 13, including a grand slam in Game 1 against the Ducks, since he replaced injured Braden Montgomery in the lineup.

When LaViolette exited the Kentucky game before the bottom of the sixth, A&M coach Jim Scholossnagle inserted Jack Bell into the game at second base and moved Kent over to play third. Gavin Grahovac moved from third base to left field and freshman Caden Sorrell from left to right to take LaViolette’s position in the field.

Both Montgomery (ankle) and pitcher Shane Sdao were injured in the Oregon series and have been declared out for the MCWS. All of which makes it interesting to see whether LaViolette can return. LaViolette, whose injury was announced as a hamstring, leads A&M with 28 homers. Montgomery, considered a potential first-round draft pick, has hit 27 homers. Sdao is regarded as a key starter.

Quotable

“Give their starter credit. (Ryan) Prager. What an outing. What a time to throw a game like that. He kept us off balance. It was the fastball. The breaking ball. The changeup. He just threw an absolute great game,” Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said.

“I thought it was a great ballgame,” A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “Tough conditions to hit. I thought both pitchers, Ryan was obviously outstanding. I thought Mason was outstanding for them. We just happened to get Appel’s big hit to get us into scoring position.

“And then both Hayden and Kaeden did an awesome job of staying on the baseball and using the whole field to hit.”

Jace LaViolette discusses his game-saving play at the Men’s College World Series

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Around 1 a.m. on Sunday morning at Charles Schwab Stadium in Omaha, Neb., Texas A&M pitcher Evan Aschenbeck threw the pitch. Florida leadoff man Cade Kurland hit it, and the ball sailed high and deep to right field.

Six-foot-six A&M rightfielder Jace LaViolette, already playing deep to prevent anything from sailing over his head, ran slightly off line to where he needed to be on the most important play of the game at the Men’s College World Series.

Admitting to making “the total wrong read” on the ball, LaViolette said later that he also thought his position might not matter because the ball might be a home run, anyway.

“My heart kind of dropped for a second,” he told reporters on site after the game.

Then something amazing happened. The ball that looked like it might land well beyond his reach for a go-ahead, two-run homer started to come back into LaViolette’s range.

He jumped up and snatched it out of the air, robbing Kurland of a homer and propelling A&M to a 3-2 victory over the Gators on Day Two of the MCWS.

“I think the wind knocked it down a little bit,” LaViolette said. “It was a really cool play.”

A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle, in his postgame remarks, deadpanned that he is glad that LaViolette is tall.

Schlossnagle said he thought when Kurland struck the ball that it would be a home run.

“You know, I know there’s been homers hit (here), but you never know until you see it go over the fence, because of how this place plays,” said Schlossnagle. “Really, there wasn’t that much wind going, but he just hit it to the wrong spot.

“Cade’s a great hitter. Stayed on a good pitch. We were playing no doubles (positioning),” Schlossnagle said. “So, Jace was already pretty far back there. But I thought it was a homer.”

It wasn’t a homer, and it gave LaViolette a thrill of his young life.

He told a television reporter from ESPN that he might be awake for a few more hours because of the adrenaline he was feeling.

Texas A&M will play against the Kentucky Wildcats on Monday at 6 p.m. in the winners bracket. Both teams are 1-0 in their half of the eight-team MCWS tournament.

The winner there will earn a ticket to the four-team bracket finals against either North Carolina State or Florida, who will play on Monday at 1 p.m. in an elimination game.

Records

Florida 34-29
Texas A&M 50-13

Pitching, defense shine as A&M wins its MCWS opener, 3-2, over Florida

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The Texas A&M Aggies executed a few clutch, highlight-worthy defensive plays in the last few innings to back a pitching staff that struck out 16 in a riveting 3-2 victory Saturday night over the Florida Gators at the Men’s College World Series.

In a game that started more than four hours late after a weather delay, the third-seeded Aggies scored two runs in the second inning and one in the third and made it stand up for their 50th win of the season. Florida rallied for two runs in the seventh to make it close.

But the Aggies closed the door, thanks to reliever Evan Aschenbeck and defensive gems authored by second baseman Kaeden Kent and rightfielder Jace LaViolette.

In the eighth inning, the Gators had loaded the bases with two outs when Dale Thomas poked a ball that rolled slowly out to the right side. Kent hustled in to pick it up but didn’t have time to throw over-handed or side-armed to first. Instead, he under-handed it, with the ball barely beating Thomas.

Florida asked for a review on the call, but it was upheld, ending the threat and the inning. In the ninth, more drama ensued. With one out, Michael Robertson reached on an infield single. Cade Kurland stepped up and drove a pitch high and deep to right.

LaViolette leaped and caught it as it was coming down, robbing Kurland of extra bases, if not a go-ahead two-run homer. Florida star Jac Caglianone, the next batter, worked a 3-2 count and Aschenbeck walked him to put runners at first and second.

Aschenbeck, regarded as perhaps the best reliever in the nation, immediately put Ashton Wilson on the defensive. He dropped a sharp-breaking curve into the zone for strike two. On a 1-2 count, he threw another ball way wide of the strike zone. Wilson swung and missed to end the game.

The Aggies surged into a 2-0 lead in the second inning against Gators starter Liam Peterson. Caden Sorrell led off with a single and Ali Camarillo drew a walk. Kent followed with a single of his own to load the bases.

At that point, Travis Chestnut chopped a high-bouncer to third for an RBI infield single. The play seemed to rattle Peterson, as he threw a wild pitch that allowed the second run to cross.

In the third inning, Hayden Schott led off with a walk and Sorrell, a freshman from Flower Mound Marcus, sent an RBI double soaring over the center fielder’s head.

The Gators, who scored 21 runs combined in two Super Regional wins last week, failed to score until the seventh inning. Justin Lamkin pitched the first three and Chris Cortez the next three. Both notched six strikeouts.

Cortez was charged with yielding two runs in the seventh before Aschenbeck entered to end the threat. Aschenbeck pitched the remainder of the seventh, the eighth and the ninth, yielding three hits and fanning four.

Records

Florida 34-29
Texas A&M 50-13

Coming up

Sunday: Virginia vs. Florida State, 1 p.m., elimination game. North Carolina vs. Tennessee, 6 p.m., winners bracket.

Monday: North Carolina State vs. Florida, 1 p.m., elimination game. Kentucky vs. Texas A&M, 6 p.m., winners bracket.

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.”

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.