A&M suffers season-ending loss in Game 7 of 2023 Stanford Regional

Game #65: #1 Stanford 7, #2 Texas A&M 1
Records: Texas A&M (38-27, 14-16), Stanford (41-18, 23-7)
WP: Quinn Mathews (9-4)
LP: Nathan Dettmer (1-4)
Box Score

As Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle said Sunday, it's never about the best team. It's about the one that plays the best.

Stanford proved to be both on Monday.

In Game 7 of the 2023 Stanford Regional, the home-standing Cardinal eliminated Texas A&M, 7-1.

"It wasn't our day," Schlossnagle said. "Sometimes the other team plays a little bit better. We didn't play bad. They just played better."

As a result, the Trees will play Texas next week.

The Aggies will play next year.

"Impressive team," Schlossnagle said of Stanford. "What they've done in the last 24, 36 hours is not easy to do because we think a lot of our team, but what they've done is impressive."

Needing one win in two tries to advance their season, A&M never found it as Monday's loss follows a 13-5 beatdown a night ago.

"They're a really good team," Austin Bost said. "Played great defense. Could really swing the bat. Moving out there.

"We gave it all on every single pitch. They came out on top. That's how baseball works."

In contrast to the first three days of regional play, it was the Aggie offense that stumbled in the winner-take-all affair.

Jace LaViolette's leadoff homer in the second — his 21st of the year — accounted for the A&M’s lone run of the night

LaViolette supplied A&M with a short-lived lead as Braden Montgomery promptly tied the contest with a leadoff bomb of his own in the bottom half of the frame.

Over 18 regional final innings, A&M did not manufacture a single run. All six runs scored came via the long ball across Sunday and Monday.

On Monday, A&M was just 2-for-20 with men on base. They stranded 10 as a timely hit never came.

"We couldn't get the big hit, and then they either got the big hit, or, you know, had some things go their way, which that happens in baseball," Schlossnagle said. "They earned it. They're a good team."

The quiet night offensively is owed largely to Stanford ace Quinn Mathews.

After throwing 114 pitches in Friday's opener vs. San Jose State, Mathews entered in the fifth with the score tied 1-1.

In his first relief appearance of the season, the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year tossed four innings of scoreless ball, scattering five hits and punching out five with a filthy fastball-changeup combo.

"What Mathews did in the middle of the game, you have to tip your cap to him," Schlossnagle said. "He gave up some hits, but he made pitches when he had to make them."

As Mathews pushed and pulled the throttle, the Cardinal lineup revved.

CJ Smith, TexAgs

Hitting just 7-of-33 (.212) on the night, A&M also left 10 stranded in a frustrating offensive showing.

Saborn Campbell tripled and later scored the winning run in the fifth. Malcolm Moore provided breathing room with a two-run home run — his second in as many nights — an inning later.

The first four runs of the night were charged to A&M's Nathan Dettmer, who certainly cannot be blamed for this loss.

"I really wanted to get out there for my guys and show what I can do," Dettmer said. "Really what fueled me, especially in this big of a game, was looking to my left and to my right before each pitch and just seeing guys like Trevor Werner and Austin Bost, guys that have just sacrificed so much.

"That's really what drove me."

In his best outing since March, Dettmer lasted six innings and struck out eight batters.

Needing a heroic outing from someone, Dettmer vied but ultimately fell short.

"I thought Nathan did great and gave us every opportunity," Schlossnagle said.

With Dettmer out of the game, Stanford added an insurance run in the seventh and two more in the eighth before closer Ryan Bruno punched out the side to send A&M packing.

"In hindsight, obviously, there are things you wish you could take back maybe, but at the end of the day, we couldn't score," Schlossnagle said.

Finishing one win shy of a second consecutive super regional berth will sting for the Maroon & White.

The uncertainty of what next season brings might hurt more.

Sure, talented freshmen LaViolette and Max Kaufer are bound to return, but A&M's top hitters — Hunter Haas and Jack Moss — are both draft eligible and could opt to turn pro.

Further, veterans like Bost, Werner, Brett Minnich and Jordan Thompson have likely seen their A&M careers come to an untimely close.

By the time February arrives, A&M's roster might look vastly different, but that's a conversation for the days and weeks ahead.

"The guys who have been here the last two years have changed the expectations of the program," Schlossnagle said. "They were here when it wasn't great, and they hung around. They could have gone somewhere else. They could've gone to another school. They could've gone to professional baseball last year. They came back and gave every single thing they had.

"We didn't end up where we wanted to end up, but I'd be shocked to find a real Aggie that isn't proud of these kids."

That long offseason officially begins because, on Monday, the better team played the best.