Royo's career day headlines A&M's doubleheader split

Game #48: No. 9 Texas A&M 18, No. 20 Ole Miss 5 (7 innings)
Records: Texas A&M (37-11, 16-9), Ole Miss (33-18, 13-13)
WP: Gavin Lyons (9-0)
LP: Cade Townsend (5-2)
Box Score

Game #49: No. 20 Ole Miss 6, No. 9 Texas A&M 5
Records: Texas A&M (37-12, 16-10), Ole Miss (34-18, 14-13)
WP: JP Robertson (3-1)
LP: Clayton Freshcorn (2-2)
Save: Walker Hooks (7)
Box Score

Sometimes the difference is razor-thin. Other times, it’s a canyon.

The duality of baseball in the SEC was on full display during a Saturday’s split doubleheader between No. 9 Texas A&M and No. 20 Ole Miss in Oxford.

Hoping to bolster their national-seed resume, the Aggies rebounded wonderfully with an 18-5 run-rule victory before dropping the rubber match 6-5 in the nightcap.

While a third top-25 series win slipped away, A&M earned its 16th SEC victory and remains in second place in the league entering the final regular-season weekend of 2026. The elusive 17th slipped away to keep Ole Miss’ regional hosting hopes flickering.

Carter Bradley/Texas A&M Athletics

Texas A&M’s final series of the regular season is will begin on Thursday, May 14, as the Aggies welcome Mississippi State to Blue Bell Park.

With just three games to play, the Ags likely need two wins to secure home-field advantage through the first two weekends of the postseason.

That may seem like a tall task with a top-10 Mississippi State coming to Aggieland next week, combined with a growing list of walking wounded in Maroon & White.

However, at least in the first ballgame on Saturday, the offense appeared far from short-handed as A&M crushed a season-best seven homers, including two from hobbled Chris Hacopian and Boston Kellner’s replacement Ben Royo.

Entering Saturday 0-for-4 in 2026, Royo finished the day 7-for-7 with three home runs, five RBI and five runs scored, but his SEC Player of the Week candidacy was likely hindered by the late loss.

With the backup shortstop leading the way, Blake Binderup homered once in both ballgames, and Caden Sorrell and Bear Harrison also joined the home run parade in Oxford.

Unfortunately, Weston Moss allowed five runs on a trio of homers in three innings as the Rebels raced out to an early 5-0 lead in the series-decider.

A&M tied the game with a five-run fourth on Binderup’s three-run blast and Royo’s subsequent solo shot.

Beyond that, the offense was held in check by Taylor Rabe’s 14 strikeouts as A&M’s 17 total Ks matched a season worst.

Additionally, Clayton Freshcorn received no run support across his five innings of relief. The top bullpen arm was saddled with a hard-luck loss despite allowing just one run on two hits.

An old cliche will tell you that the margins in the SEC are minuscule. The difference between a series win and a series loss might have been a checked swing that would’ve gotten Freshcorn out of the seventh.

Two pitches later, equipped with a new life, Judd Utermark’s seeing-eye single scooted by a shifted Sawyer Farr, scoring Dom Decker with two outs for the decisive run.

Trailing 6-5, A&M got the potential tying run aboard in both the eighth and ninth, but they were turned away by time by Hudson Calhoun and Walker Hooks, respectively, as an offense that accumulated 24 total hits in 16 innings failed to find a clutch one late.

As a result, it’s a second straight series loss, but that’s not why the Aggies are limping into the season finale.

They’re limping because, well, they’re limping.

Hacopian is still relegated to DH-only duties by a bone bruise on his lower left leg. SEC Freshman of the Year candidate Nico Partida has missed five straight games with a hamstring pull. Kellner, who started the first 47 games of the year, suffered a broken orbital bone on Friday.

Perhaps there should even be concern for Aiden Sims, who finished just three innings on only 66 pitches in the first game on Saturday. Whether his early departure is due to a pitch count, fatigue, soreness or something more remains unclear, but Sims projects to shoulder a heavy workload in the postseason.

But before A&M can think about the Road to Omaha, the Aggies must win two ballgames next weekend, and they must get healthy.

If not, it could be a different-looking June.