A&M prevails in Round 1 of highly-dramatic Lone Star Showdown

Game #33: No. 18 Texas A&M 9, Texas 8
Records: Texas A&M (26-7, 8-5), Texas (27-6, 9-3)
WP: Ethan Darden (3-0)
LP: Haiden Leffew (2-1)
Save: Clayton Freshcorn (7)
Box Score

Round 1: Texas A&M.

This entire weekend is a prize fight.

Yes, there is an actual trophy on the line in the Lone Star Showdown, but there is so much more on the line.

On Friday, the 18th-ranked Aggies took a massive first step by beating No. 2 Texas, 9-8, in the opening game of a best-of-three that is dripping with storylines.

“If you can’t get excited to play in front of that, but also be controlled, this isn’t the place for you,” A&M head coach Michael Earley said. “You get a fan base like this. You get an electric crowd. Use it. Use it when you need it.

“There’s always going to be anticipation when we play them. It’s going to be the same thing tomorrow, so we gotta show up again tomorrow.”

Each time the traitorous Jim Schlossnagle stepped out of the first-base dugout, he was booed thunderously by the 7,664 in attendance at Blue Bell Park. His return drew the most attention throughout the evening, though a rather well-played and meaningful ballgame was not to be overshadowed.

Scoreless through two, the Aggies and Longhorns traded blows in each of the following eight half-innings as the Maroon & White scored in their final six turns to hit.

Blow after blow. Punch after punch. After one round, the advantage is with the Ags.

As they have throughout 2026, A&M’s offense was elite, though they lacked the big hit to truly blow the roof off the ballpark.

“Guys are relentless on this team,” first baseman Gavin Grahovac said. “We work one through nine. We gotta move the ball. We gotta get guys over, and that’s what we did today.”

Grahovac was 2-for-4 with a double, triple and two RBI. Nico Partida was 2-for-2 with a homer and two walks. Jake Duer was on base three times.

One through nine, they passed the baton and took turns hitting the Longhorns with it.

“If it’s over the plate, we want to swing, and if it’s not, we don’t,” Earley said. “For the most part, we’ve done a really good job of that this year. It’s just our philosophy and how we train everything on a day-to-day basis, so in a game like that, awesome crowd, I thought our guys did a good job of just controlling the zone and controlling their heart rate and making sure they gave them a pitch to hit.”

A typically stingy Texas pitching staff was rather stinky, failing to dominate the zone and issuing seven walks. Of their eight total freebies, the Aggies parlayed them into four runs.

Behind starter Ruger Riojas, who surrendered five runs in five innings, the Longhorns used four pitchers, but each threw less than 30 pitches, meaning they should all be available when the series resumes.

Meanwhile, A&M needed just Ethan Darden and Clayton Freshcorn after a serviceable four-inning start from Shane Sdao.

The starter left with the Aggies trailing 4-3 following Aiden Robbins’ two-run homer in the fifth, and an inning later, Carson Tinney took Darden deep to put Texas up 6-4.

What followed was a three-spot from the Aggies that featured five walks, a sacrifice bunt and a sac fly as they took the lead for good without the benefit of a base hit.

“Relentless. That’s the word that describes our offense. We never give in with two strikes. We never give in when it’s a big moment,” Grahovac said. “Everyone showed up today. Everyone knew what this meant to the 12th Man, knew what it meant to us. Again, we’ve got to win ballgames.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who’s over there. We’ve got to win the ballgame, and we executed at a high level tonight.”

Danny Grant, TexAgs

Clayton Freshcorn closed out the last three innings, matching a season-high four strikeouts and recording his seventh save of the season.

Earlier this week, Freshcorn walked into Jason Kelly’s office and expressed his desire to take the ball more.

Earley and Kelly obliged and thrust him into a 7-6 game, needing nine outs to secure the victory.

“I want to win, and I want to help this team in any case that I can,” Freshcorn said. “I want to throw as much as possible. When I’m in my groove, I think that we can win.

“I think the adrenaline was more, but it was in a good way. I was more excited to get out there, and I wasn’t anxious like some may think. I just wanted to go out there and compete.”

With insurance markers in the seventh and eighth (thanks to a successful challenge and the game’s only error), Freshcorn finished the job to earn his seventh save of the year.

Back-to-back home runs with one out in the ninth increased the anxiety some, but a Temo Becerra flyout gave a once-betrayed fanbase reason to exhale and exuberate.

For now.

“You just got a leg up,” Earley cautioned. “We’re going to have our hands full tomorrow. This is going to be a heavyweight fight every single game.”

Make no mistake: The atmosphere lived up to the hype. So did the two teams. So did the game.

It’s not nearly time for elimination baseball, but Friday was almost a postseason game in April.

But nothing was clinched. It was just the opening round.

The battle resumes on Saturday at 2:02 p.m. CT, weather permitting.