Aggies close non-conference play with convincing win over Prairie View
Game #46: No. 9 Texas A&M 16, Prairie View A&M 7
Records: Texas A&M (36-10, 15-8), Prairie View A&M (8-35, 6-18)
WP: Grant Cunningham (4-1)
LP: Kamar Dove (1-9)
Box Score
Good teams win midweeks.
Left-handed reliever Ethan Darden offered that wisdom after a come-from-behind win last Tuesday.
This Tuesday, the final midweek game of No. 9 Texas A&M’s 2026 campaign, was a much more comfortable 16-7 victory over Prairie View in front of 5,063 at Blue Bell Park.
To Darden’s point, it was also another reminder that Michael Earley’s Aggies are better than good as they strive for greatness down the stretch.
“You gotta take care of business where you’re perceived and supposed to take care of business if you want to be in the position you want to be in, and we’ve done that,” the A&M head man said. “We’ve done that at an extremely high level. Only losing two games in the non-conference is pretty hard to do, and I’m not sure how many teams have done it, so our guys have done a great job in that part of the schedule of getting done what we needed to get done.”
By drubbing the Panthers, the Maroon & White finish the year 10-1 in midweek matchups. The lone blemish came away from home in early April before Texas State bottomed out.
Further, now that non-conference play is finished, A&M owns a 21-2 record outside the SEC gauntlet. The only other loss was in February to the nation’s top-ranked team.
The 2022 team, which the ‘26 unit is most often compared to, was 16-6 vs. non-conference opponents and 9-1 on midweeks.
While succeeding in the 30-game league schedule is most important, the non-conference success cannot be glossed over.
In fact, it’s a major part of A&M’s case to be a top-eight national seed come Memorial Day.
“You play the game the same, no matter who the opponent is, and that’s something the coaches have really gotten into our heads,” left fielder Jake Duer said. “It’s the same game, no matter who it is.
“If we just play our brand of baseball, wins will happen.”
It has been a remarkable season with wins happening all over the place, but this particular win was rather unremarkable.
The Aggies erased an early 4-0 deficit by scoring 11 unanswered, coughed up a trio of unearned runs and still managed to win comfortably.
A five-run third was headlined by Duer’s two-run double and Bear Harrison’s two-run home run to take the lead. Six in the fourth featured a pair of two-run blasts by Gavin Grahovac and Duer.
A&M also added solo markers in the sixth and seventh before plating three more on Wesley Jordan’s three-run round-tripper in the eighth.
While so many runs were scored, the standout was still a pitcher as left-hander Hunter Bond retired all 10 Panthers he faced. The hope is that he can bolster the still-thin bullpen.
Sure, simply playing Prairie View serves as a minor RPI hit, dropping A&M from No. 8 to No. 11 in the selection committee’s beloved metric.
By beating the No. 302 (of 308) Panthers, the Aggies improved to 17-0 vs. Quadrant 4 opponents, and along with a 4-1 record vs. Quad 3, they’ve avoided any major blows to their resume.
This comes at a time when top-flight programs are dropping late-midweek matchups to preserve metrics more regularly.
“You don’t want to cancel games,” Earley said. “If you cancel games, behind those closed doors, you’re gonna get dinged for it.
“I think it hurts you more perceptionally if you do something like that and it comes down to you and another team, and you bang the game, and they didn’t. We’re not done, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I think if you look at our body of work at the end, however it is, however we end up, I believe we’re going to be put where we’re supposed to be put.”
Additionally, A&M’s RPI is poised to bump back in the right direction again this weekend and next when A&M faces ranked opponents Ole Miss (No. 13 in RPI) and Mississippi State (No. 9 in RPI).
Going .500 vs. the Rebels and Bulldogs should secure home-field advantage at Blue Bell through the first two weekends of the NCAA Tournament, and that’s obviously a big-time goal.
Accomplishing that would cement A&M as a really, really good team.
