By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The top-ranked Texas A&M Aggies rallied to win in the debut of head coach Michael Earley, downing the North Carolina-based Elon University Phoenix, 4-2, in College Station.

Trailing 2-0, A&M scored three times in the bottom of the sixth on two singles, three walks and a wild pitch by the Elon bullpen. Sophomore Blake Binderup hit a solo home run in the eighth for the Aggies. A&M starter Ryan Prager pitched a one hitter over five scoreless innings.

Meanwhile, the Louisville Cardinals also rallied from a two-run deficit in downing the 19th-ranked Texas Longhorns, 4-3, in 10 innings at Arlington’s Globe Life Field. The Cardinals won it with two outs in the bottom of the 10th when Lucas Moore hit an RBI single off Longhorns reliever Andre Duplantier Jr.

It was the first game at Texas for coach Jim Schlossnagle, who was head coach at A&M last year and led the Aggies to the College World Series finals.

It was also the UT debut of former UTSA standout Ruger Riojas, who was the first relief pitcher out of the bullpen for the Longhorns. Riojas, a junior from Wimberley who won 10 games last year for the Roadrunners, worked 2 and 2/3 innings and struck out four. In a position to earn the save in the bottom of the ninth, he gave up two hits and was charged with two runs that tied the game.

Other results

(6) North Carolina beats Texas Tech, 5-1 and 8-3, at Chapel Hill, N.C.
(20) Dallas Baptist beats North Dakota State, 11-6, at Dallas
(23) TCU beats San Diego, 5-4, in 10 innings, at San Diego
UT Arlington beats UTSA, 5-0, at Arlington
Incarnate Word beats Saint Peter’s N.J., 12-2, at San Antonio
Texas State beats Binghamton, N.Y., 4-1, at San Marcos
Kansas beats Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 8-5, in Corpus Christi
George Mason beats East Carolina, 7-3, in Greenville, N.C.
East Carolina beats George Mason, 4-3, in Greenville, N.C.