We’re seeing the making of something truly special on the corner of Bush and Olsen.
Aggie Baseball has long been one of the top 15-20 programs in the sport. It’s a program with incredible fan support and a winning tradition.
But until Jim Schlossnagle, it’s been a program riddled with gut-wrenching losses and underachievement.
The Aggies have made it to the ultimate destination — the College World Series — only six times in program history and just twice since the turn of the century.
A&M’s record in Omaha is 2-12, and has not won a game there since 1993.
A huge part of A&M’s most recent run of heartbreak has been TCU. Formerly led by Schlossnagle, the Horned Frogs enjoyed a rapid and truly remarkable rise, including five trips to Omaha and 11 wins in the College World Series — mainly on the heels of several monumental victories over the Aggies in June.
Schlossnagle and Co. took out the Aggies at home as a third-seed in the 2012 regional (a team with Michael Wacha, Ross Stripling, Tyler Naquin, and five guys who have played in the Big Leagues).
But everything changed almost precisely one year ago when Ross Bjork went up to Cowtown and pulled Schlossnagle away from the Frogs.
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Who will forget the epic super regional losses to TCU in ’15 and ’16? And in 2017, the team narrowly missed out on the CWS at the hands of the Frogs.
But everything changed almost precisely one year ago when Ross Bjork went up to Cowtown and pulled Schlossnagle away from the Frogs.
At that very moment, it felt like the perfect recipe to finally elevate this program beyond just “very good and solid.”
We had no idea it would happen this quickly.
In his first year, Schlossnagle took a roster that featured just one guy (Joseph Menefee) that had played in an NCAA Tournament game for the Aggies and somehow found a way to turn it into one of the five best teams in college baseball.
It was an in-season turnaround for the ages. From a 10-6 record in the 16 games preceding conference play — all against teams that failed to reach this year’s NCAA Tournament — to winning eight of 10 league series en route to the SEC West title.
But standing in A&M’s way in the regional bracket: TCU
It was only fitting that the Ags would have to go through Schlossnagle’s old team and vanquish that demon to truly break through and take that next all-important step as a program.
The future of Texas A&M Baseball is unbelievably bright. And that future is now as the red hot Aggies face Louisville in this weekend's College Station Super Regional.
TCU has been exorcised, and the Aggies are now two wins away from Omaha and another monumental step forward as a baseball program.
Here’s a statistical look, By The Numbers, at A&M’s 3-0 weekend with wins over Oral Roberts, Louisiana and TCU en route to the College Station Regional title...
.875 - Season-long OPS (on-base + slugging) by five Aggie hitters in the everyday lineup. Dylan Rock leads at 1.163 (.483 OBP; .680 SLG). That’s the highest OPS by an Aggie since Daylan Holt posted an insane 1.211 OPS in ’99 (23 years ago).
After Rock, it looks like this: Austin Bost at 1.037 (.462 OBP; .575 SLG); Ryan Targac at 1.036 (.441 OBP; .595 SLG); Jack Moss at .985 (.448 OBP; .537 SLG); Brett Minnich at .879 (.417 OBP; .462 SLG).
Jamie Maury, TexAgs
Dylan Rock’s two-run hit highlighted a seven-run ninth inning in Sunday’s regional final against TCU.
If you're dying to know, John Byington is the school record holder in OPS at an astounding OPS of 1.343 (.442 / .524 / .819) in '89.
0.90 - Micah Dallas’ ERA in his last two starts. The graduate transfer from Texas Tech tossed five scoreless innings in the SEC Tournament vs. Florida and allowed only one run in five frames vs. ORU last Friday.
Dallas entered the postseason with a 6.10 ERA but has looked significantly better after being removed from the starting rotation for two weeks at the end of the regular season.
5 - Years since A&M’s last regional victory and super regional appearance. The Aggies defeated Houston in their home regional back in 2017. The Aggies swept that weekend and advanced to the CWS, where they fell to Louisville and TCU.
5 - As in the Five Factors ... a stat that we’ve tracked for years in the old “Diamond Notes” feature and are continuing here. The five factors to success offensively and defensively/on the mound ... hitting with two outs, with runners on, with runners in scoring position, getting the leadoff man on base and two-out RBIs. Here’s how A&M did on both offense and positionally in the three regional games...
Offensively:
- Two outs - .477 (21-for-44) ... up 134 points from last week
- Runners on - .435 (27-for-62) ... up 117 points from last week
- Runners in scoring position - .462 (18-for-39) ... up 102 points from last week
- Leadoff OBP - .308 (8-for-26) ... down 92 points from last week
- Two-out RBIs - 18 ... up six RBIs from last week
Defensively:
- Two outs - .353 (12-for-34) ... up (opponent improvement) 215 points from last week
- Runners on - .217 (13-for-60) ... down (A&M improvement) 22 points from last week
- Runners in scoring position - .147 (5-for-34) ... down 129 points from last week
- Leadoff OBP - .519 (14-for-27) ... up 119 points from last week
- Two-out RBIs - four ... up one RBI from last week
Think about these numbers for a minute.
A&M as an offense got on base just about 31% of the time to lead off innings, yet hits .435 with runners on, .462 with runners in scoring position, and .477 with two outs with 18 two-out RBIs.
Conversely, A&M allowed their opponents to get on base nearly 52% of the time to lead off innings, but opponents hit just .217 with runners on and .147 with RISP. Great job of hitting and limiting damage when it mattered most.
6 - Hits for Brett Minnich in the College Station Regional. Minnich went 6-for-12 (.500) in the three games with three RBIs and three runs scored.
9 - Hits for Jack Moss in three games to earn Regional MVP honors. The sophomore went a ridiculous 9-for-14 (.643) with five RBIs and five runs scored in the three A&M wins.
Moss is hitting .577 (15-for-26) in six postseason games if you lump in the SEC Tournament. On the season, his batting average is up to .388. If the season ended today, that would put him in a tie for 14th all-time at A&M in a single season.
Only 11 Aggies have ever hit .400 in a single season, and the last to do it was Jason Tyner (.407) in 1996. The highest single-season average over the previous 25 years was Blake Stouffer (.398) in 2007.
Jamie Maury, TexAgs
“Professional Hitter” Jack Moss went 4-for-5 with four singles in Saturday’s win over Louisianna.
10 - Wins for the Aggies in their last 12 games. That dates back to the sweep of Mississippi State three weeks ago. A&M went 5-1 against the Mississippi schools to close out the regular season and capture the division crown, then picked up a couple of wins in the SEC Tournament before going 3-0 in regional play over the weekend.
11.57 - Nathan Dettmer’s ERA over his last four starts. The sophomore right-hander has given up 18 earned runs on 24 hits in 14 innings dating back to his May 13th start against Mississippi State, around the same time as a reported foot blister injury.
Dettmer gave up six earned runs on nine hits over 4.1 frames with no walks and four Ks on Saturday vs. Louisiana.
17 - RBIs from hitters 2-4 in the Aggie lineup in the three regional games. Jack Moss and Dylan Rock drove in five runs and Austin Bost posted seven on the weekend. They also combined to score 13 runs.
18 - Home runs this season for Dylan Rock. The grad transfer hit 18 home runs in three-plus seasons at UTSA before blowing up in his final season in college baseball. The 18 homers tie him with John Curl (1995) for seventh all-time.
He’s just two long balls away from tying Mike Scanlin (1986) for third in the A&M single-season record books. Rock went 7-for-13 (.538) with a home run, five RBIs and four runs scored on the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
We’ve never watched A&M play deep into June. But, this team has a chance to do just that and it all continues this weekend against Lousiville in super regional action.
We’ll see you around the ballpark!
