Aggies return to NCAA Tournament as No. 3 seed in Austin Regional

The Texas Aggie baseball team received its marching orders on Monday, and the path to Omaha goes through Austin and the Texas Longhorns. Texas A&M earned a No. 3 seed and will face the No. 2 seed Indiana Hoosiers in the opening game on Friday. The  top-seeded Longhorns will face SWAC Tournament champion and 4-seed Texas Southern in the other first round contest. If the Aggies and Longhorns both win on Friday, they will meet Saturday night in a critical winner's bracket semifinal.

The NCAA Committee saw the obvious benefits of matching-up the long-time SWC and Big 12 rivals. First, there's the natural rivalry. This potential match-up will sell tickets and will get eyeballs to ESPN's coverage of the NCAA Regionals throughout the region and nation. Second, it's a mere 90 mile bus ride down Highway 21 for the Aggies, so travel costs will be low. Plus, there are few other options for schools from the state of Texas to travel to Austin. Both Rice and TCU are home this year while Texas Tech and Baylor can't be paired in the first round with any other conference partner per NCAA rules. So that left Texas A&M as an obvious choice to get the assignment in the state capitol. Finally, it makes sense from a competition standpoint. Texas is a weak regional host by the numbers with an RPI of 22 and a national seeding of 13. The Aggies are by far the strongest No. 3 seed in the tournament with an RPI of 15. It's expected that a weak regional host will get one of the more difficult regional fields.

The winner of the Austin Regional will face the winner of the Oxford Regional, which is being hosted by Ole Miss. Here are some statistical comparisons of the teams in the Austin Regional:

RPI

• No. 15 - Texas A&M
• No. 22 - Texas
• No. 29 - Indiana
• No. 215 - Texas Southern

Top 30 Wins

• Texas A&M  -  Florida (1), Ole Miss (6), Georgia (9) , Auburn (14), MSU (28)
• Texas  -  Stanford (2), Texas Tech (10)
• Indiana  -  Coastal Carolina (17), Louisville (24)
• Texas Southern -  none

Batting Average

• .307 -  Texas Southern
• .284  -  Texas A&M
• .284  -  Indiana
• .272  -  Texas

Earned Run Average

• 2.91  -  Indiana
• 3.23  -  Texas A&M
• 4.36  -  Texas
• 5.23   -  Texas Southern

Fielding Percentage

• .977  -  Texas
• .976  -  Indiana
• .973  -  Texas A&M
• .966  -  Texas Southern