Texas Baseball: Giving due credit to head coach David Pierce

David Pierce joins Rodney Terry in exceeding expectations this season.

Texas baseball continued its run of excellence on Friday. The No. 21 Texas Longhorns (20-7) defeated the No. 17 Oklahoma State Cowboys (20-7) in an impressive 5-3 victory. Texas might not be ranked No. 21 for long.

An early offensive explosion saw the Longhorns build a 5-1 lead with powerful extra base hits. It’s the style of play that makes head coach David Pierce’s team so fun to watch.

We were critical of the ball club and its coach earlier in the season. Now they are due for praise. The team has won 16 in a row. The last five have come against Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State, all of which have high postseason aspirations.

This team replaced first baseman Ivan Melendez and six other bats in its lineup. Starting pitcher Lucas Gordon was elevated to Pete Hansen’s role as staff ace. Pitchers who were unable to perform in big game roles last season have made this team a winner and more reliable than last season’s top heavy squad.

We challenged the team to play better baseball. Over the last 16 games, David Pierce is more than passing every test.

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Significance of No. 21 Texas’ 5-2 win over Texas A&M on Tuesday

There’s no such thing as a meaningless regular season game between Texas and Texas A&M.

For the 245th time, the No. 21 Texas Longhorns (19-7) defeated the unranked Texas A&M Aggies (15-10) on the baseball diamond. Though some would try to diminish the importance of the game, it bears significant ramifications for both teams.

The win brings Texas to 15 consecutive victories, raising its RPI to No. 15 in the nation. Certainly games against Texas Tech, TCU and Oklahoma State will play a role in where the Longhorns are seeded when tournament play starts. Nevertheless, the win over the Aggies could aid the team in hosting a Region prior to the College World Series in Omaha.

Texas A&M is heading in the opposite direction as losers of four straight games. The Aggies are 1-5 in SEC play with 10 losses early in the season. That’s a dramatic fall for A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle and company after starting the season in the Top 10 and Top 5 in various preseason polls.

The biggest takeaway is that the Longhorns found a way to win a game in a rabid road environment. Texas pitcher Zane Morehouse overcame control issues and obnoxious fans to close out a game that looked to be in danger.

Next up, Texas looks to stay undefeated in conference (3-0) as it travels to face the No. 17 Oklahoma State Cowboys (20-6, 4-2 in conference) in Stillwater on Friday.

Texas A&M jumps a few spots in the USA Today College baseball rankings

Aggies baseball is slowly creeping back up the in the rankings as they move to 12-4 on the year

What seemed like a free fall at the beginning of the season, was more of an overaction than anything as Texas A&M (12-4) turned it around and has won seven straight games. The bubbles have been flowing and Aggie pitching is starting to find its way just in time for conference play. The new USA Today rankings had Texas A&M move up four spots from 19 to 15.

After the comeback win to beat Northern Kentucky to complete the sweep, pitcher Will Johnston gave his thoughts on the win and the prior week of play

“We played 16 innings against Texas Tech less than a week ago, two mid weeks and played Friday and Saturday. It’s tough to win five ball games in less than seven days. I’m proud of the way we competed. It’s baseball and it’s never going to be perfect, so I’m happy. Coach Schlossnagle reiterated that to us.”

The Aggies will travel to Houston. on March 14 at 6:30 pm where they will take on the University of Houston.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1

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Mid-week Recap: Aggies Baseball

Recap of the mid-week wins for the Aggies Baseball team

No. 15 Texas A&M had a strong mid-week two-game stretch where they went 2-0 outscoring their opponents 19-6 with 20 hits. The Aggies were on fire scoring in six of the eight innings beating UIW Cardinals 13-5 on Tuesday. Then for the second time in four days Texas A&M (9-4) beat in-state rival Rice in the second game 6-1 on Wednesday night.

game one recap – Texas a&M vs UIW

The Aggies gave the fans plenty to cheer for and filled Blue Bell Park full of bubbles. Starting off hot they racked up four runs in the first inning with Freshman Kaeden Kent closing out the scoring with a three-run double down the left-field line. That put Texas A&M up early heading to the second inning.

They would score four more runs before UIW would produce their first points of the night. The Cardinals went on a four-run rally in the fifth to pull within striking distance, however, that promising momentum was quelled quickly in the very next inning. Hunter Haas would go yard for the second time in the game and later Austin Bost would reach home on an error extending the Aggie lead 10-4.

UIW attempted to answer but only managed two hits and a single run in the top of the eight where Aggies, for good measure, tacked on an additional three runs in the same inning to go up 13 – 5 which turned out to be the final score.

Final Score: Aggies 13, Cardinals 5 – W: Rudis, Brad (2-0); L: Higdon, Seth (0-2)

game two recap – Texas a&M vs rice

In a rematch a few days in the making Rice was looking to even the score against the Aggies after getting run-ruled 13-1 at the Shriners Children’s College Classic over the weekend. This game was closer, but the Owls never posed a threat to Texas A&M who was on a three-game win streak coming into Wednesday.

After a few base hits and a hit-by-pitch, they would load the bases for Jordan Thompson. Like the first two batters of the inning, he would hit a single allowing Bost to score. Freshman standout Jace LaViolette would one-up Thompson with a two-run RBI with his own base hit to left field. One more run crossed the plate before the end of the inning to go up 4-0.

The game was scoreless for the next five innings where Rice finally got their one and only run of the game. A majority of the Owl’s hitting woes came from the arm of Justin Lamkin who only allowed three hits, zero runs, and seven strikeouts through five innings.

The Aggies would get the last two runs of the game in the top of the eighth inning. Back-to-back singles put Texas A&M in prime positions to add some insurance and Bost cashed in on that policy with a two-run double into right-center field.

Final Score: Aggies 6, Owls 1 – W: Lamkin, Justin (1-1); L: McCracken, JD (0-1)

The Aggies will start a 3-game series at 6 p.m. on March 10 – 12 where they will host Northern Kentucky at Blue Bell Park.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1

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The Aggies drop again in the USA Today Sports college baseball rankings

The Texas A&M Baseball team drop a spot to No. 19 in the USA Today Sports rankings

The Aggie baseball team has been dropping in every poll for the past month. Texas A&M (8-4) started the season ranked No. 4 with high expectations and for most, it’s been an early season letdown. The latest drop was not as dramatic as they only fell one spot from No. 18 to No. 19 after going 2-1 at the Shriners Children’s College Classic over the past weekend.

Texas A&M and Texas Tech had a low-scoring late night that led into the early morning which had a lot of people grabbing multiple cups of coffee. The last game of the tournament went to 16 innings before the Aggies took the win 4-2.

They are now in the swing of a midweek two-game stretch where they beat UIW 13-5 and take on Rice next on Wednesday at 7 pm. With five games remaining before SEC play begins at home against LSU on March 17, the Aggies will need to continue to find some consistency at the plate and hope that their pitching staff has finally gotten into some sort of rhythm after this weekend’s interesting results.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1

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Tournament Preview : Texas A&M Baseball

Texas A&M returns to Minute Maid Park for the Shriners Children’s College Classic

Texas A&M will head to Houston this weekend to participate in the Shriners Children’s College Classic at Minute Maid Park. The 23rd Annual tournament will showcase Texas A&M (5-3), Louisville (7-1), Rice (3-5), Texas Tech (10-0), TCU (5-3), and Michigan (4-4) in a nine-game tournament.

The No.15 ranked Aggies come into the tournament on a two-game win streak with victories over Portland and HCU. The Aggies have been struggling early this season and to take these last two games before this weekend was a great confidence booster.

GAME SCHEDULE

Game One – Louisville – March 2 at 7pm/CT

The Aggies are still pretty familiar with the Louisville Cards playing them last in the 2022 College Station Super Regional where they beat them in two games to advance to the College World Series.

Game Two – Rice – March 3 at 7pm/CT

In the first of three games scheduled for this year, Texas A&M would like to an early season win over one of their most prolific rivals in the program’s history.

Game Three – Texas Tech – March 4 at 7pm/CT

The last game of the weekend for the Aggies will be against an old Big 12 foe in the undefeated Texas Tech Red Raiders. Having only faced each other twice in the last decade, the winner of this game will have bragging rights for possibly another 5 – 10 years.

The pitching over the past two games has been a mixed game, but they have been closing better, and the offense waking up recently helps take some pressure off. However, with that being said Coach Schloss has his pitchers know they need to do a better job of retiring the lead batters after the Aggies put up points. To put is in football terms after the offense scores, they need more three and outs instead of giving up long possessions.

Starting on the mound this weekend will be Nathan Dettmer, Troy Wansing, and Chris Cortez. They will be looking to get some good work in before heading back to College Station.

WAYS TO FOLLOW THE GAME

TV: AT&T SportsNet SW

Radio: Locally Sports Radio 1150/93.7 The Zone

Social: Follow the @AggiesBaseball Twitter for updates

Internet: 12thMan.com / 12th Man Mobile app for live play-by-play

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1

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Social Media Reacts to Aggies drumming of HCU

Social Media reactions to 23-0 win on the HCU Huskies

It’s always fun to watch your favorite team put up enough points so the backups can get some quality work in during the season. Tuesday night in College Station was such a time for that opportunity. The Aggies got hit after hit and walk after walk that led to a 23-0 win over the HCU Huskies to win their second straight.

This has been an up-and-down season for the offense and some of the better hitters from last year have been a little cold to start this year. So, the 17-hit game after a strong 9th inning for the comeback win over Portland has the Aggies trending in the right direction.

Austin Bost had his best game so far this season and earned his 100th RBI before the night was out. He went 3 for 4, two doubles, a Grand slam home, and 6 RBIs. Below he gives his thoughts on the game and the early season struggles.

“We knew we were struggling, trying to find ourselves,” senior second baseman Austin Bost said. “But we weren’t nervous … we knew we just had to trust the process and we knew good things were coming.”

“It was a load of fun,” Bost said. “Being able to come out here and have fun … that’s the big thing.”

I’m going to enjoy this win by soaking in some of the social media reactions during the game. Check them out with us below.

 

Texas A&M bats come alive to drive HCU out of College Station early

Aggies win their second in a row blanking the HCU Huskies 23-0

The 15th-ranked Aggies (5-3) came out blazing at Bell Blue Park Tuesday evening to run rule the HCU Huskies (0-7) after the top of the 7th inning. They scored early to go up 6-0 after the 1st inning and never looked back, scoring in every inning except the fifth to blank the Huskies with a football score of 23-0.

The pitching had a rough start but twice worked themselves out of based loaded jams within the first three innings, then went on to have a solid outing across multiple pitchers. The story of the game was the 17 hits and superb base running. Also, for the first time this season, the Aggies were able to put points on the scoreboard in the first inning and it came off the bat of Jack Moss. With Hunter Hass on first base, Moss blasted a ball to right center field prompting Haas to get his horse to round the bases and score from first.

Austin Bost wanting to get in on scoring action got his own RBI double with a rocket to left field, letting Moss and Werner cross the plate to go up 3-0. After a few more hits and the Huskies outfielders miss playing a fly ball the inning is over with the Aggies holding a 6-0 lead.

That was pretty much the story of each inning, HCU failing to score while the Aggies put up points. Werner started off the bottom of the second with a home run to left center. Later in the same inning, Kaden Kent would get a base hit to score Bost to go up 8-0. The 3rd inning was littered with walks giving the Aggies a few easy scoring opportunities and adding another 3 runs to the total now sitting at 11-0.

The 9th inning saw the largest run output in an inning this season. After a leadoff walk, Jack Moss would get his second RBI double of the night, with a hit in left-center field, scoring Haas. Warner gets walked then Jace Laviolette reaches base on a dropped ball in right field. With the bases loaded Bost enters the batter’s box and proceeds to hit a 390′ homer over the left field fence for a grand slam.

The home run party didn’t end there, Hank Bard would put his stamp on the inning by hitting his own home run to left field bringing two more across home plate. A fielding error late in the inning would close out the scoring that inning pushing the score to 20-0.

After a scoreless 5th inning for both teams, the Aggies would rack up another three runs in the 6th and Will Johnston got the three strikeouts to put the game away.

This was the perfect confidence booster leading into the Shriners Children’s College Classic at Minute Maid Park where they will face the No.14-ranked Louisville Cardinals, Rice, and No. 24 Texas Tech over three days starting on Friday, March 3rd.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1

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Aggies Baseball to face Houston Christian tonight

The Aggies take on the Huskies in a mid-week battle at Blue Bell

On paper, this is a game the Aggies (4-3) should win on the way to facing the 10th-ranked Louisville (6-1) on Friday. However, after watching A&M strand over nearly 40 runners on base during the three-game Portland series, I will not be counting any chickens early.

The Houston Christian Huskies (0-7) have been struggling to find a win this year and have been outscored 73 to 35 on the season. While the Aggies needed some of that Olsen magic on Sunday to avoid losing their fourth straight game.

On the mound for the Maroon & White will be right-handed junior, Wyatt Tucker, and the Huskies will send out freshman Jonathan Valdez. The game will start at 6 pm/CT at Blue Bell Park.

There will be a variety of ways to follow the game. Check below to see which one will work best for you.

TV: SEC Network Plus

Radio: Locally Sports Radio 1150/93.7 The Zone

Social: Follow the @AggiesBaseball Twitter for updates

Internet: 12thMan.com / 12th Man Mobile app for live play-by-play

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1

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Aggies drop to No.15 in newest D1Baseball Rankings

After losing their weekend series to Portland, Texas A&M Baseball dropped from No. 5 to No. 15 in the newest D1Baseball.com Top 25 rankings

Texas A&M (4-3) salvaged their early season image after freshman Jace LaViolette struck gold late after hitting a walk-off double down the right field line to win their final game in an otherwise painfully ugly series vs. the Portland Pilots.

Sitting at a disappointing 4-3 start to the year, the offense has been a shell of itself compared to pre-season expectations, while the Aggies’ bullpen has been borderline inept mainly due to youth and inexperience, but nevertheless, the season must go on, and confidence remains among a group that still dreams of postseason success come summer.

On Monday, D1Baseball.com released their brand new Top 25 Rankings, and to no surprise, Texas A&M dropped 10 spots to No. 15 after spending the week at No. 5 as the shine has come off in a similar fashion to the start of the 2022 season for Jim Schlossnagles’ program, losing 6 of their first 16 games before going on an impressive run in the SEC.

The Aggies’ next three-four opponents include Houston Baptist on Tuesday night, and the Shriner’s Children’s College Classic this coming weekend to face #14 Lousiville, and #24 Texas Tech, so, plenty of opportunities to get back on track in an instant.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Cameron on Twitter: @CameronOhnysty

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