A&M's offense sputters in season-ending loss to USC

Game #57: Southern Cal 7, #12 Texas A&M 1
Records: Texas A&M (41-16, 18-11), Southern Cal (47-16, 20-10)
WP: Chase Herrell (5-4)
LP: Clayton Freshcorn (4-3)
Box Score

How much improvement was made from Year 1 to Year 2?

There will be a time to analyze that question, and the answer is likely more than marginal.

But it wasn’t substantial.

In the end, the margins — too many of them — unraveled Michael Earley’s second season at Texas A&M with a 7-1 loss to USC in a win-or-go-home game in the College Station Regional.

The performance likely left the 7,042 fans at Blue Bell Park shaking their heads and wondering what could have been.

What if A&M’s pitching, all year, had been better?

What if A&M’s offense, led by three potential first-rounders, had produced more than one run on six hits in the crucial Game 7? Or more than four runs in two games?

What if Cliff Pennington held Chris Hacopian at third on Jorian Wilson’s fourth-inning single?

What if Jake Duer hadn’t slipped trying to stretch a single into a double?

What if Earley was a batter or two sooner in lifting starter Clayton Freshcorn?

Unfortunately for those in the program, those departing and even the 12th Man, there will be 262 days to ponder such questions and many more before the next campaign arrives on Feb. 19, 2027.

Danny Grant, TexAgs

In two seasons at Texas A&M, Michael Earley’s career record is now 71-42.

“We wanted to try to get on the board early, and we didn’t,” the A&M head coach said. “I thought we hit some balls hard, but maybe not enough. They pitched it really well. They pitched it well and did enough.

“Baseball, it’s a tough sport, and sometimes things don’t go your way, but it wasn’t due to a lack of effort. They just played better than us tonight.”

After not making the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the Aggies were double-dipped in a home regional as the Trojans catch a plane to Chapel Hill.

So there’s obvious progress.

However, USC earned its ticket by outplaying A&M in every facet over two consecutive days as the Men of Troy hit .371 as a club with a 1.078 OPS in five games this weekend.

Monday’s biggest blows came from Augie Lopez. The DH drove in the go-ahead run in the fifth before detonating a three-run home run deep into the Aggieland sky two frames later.

That put a damper on an otherwise gritty night from Freshcorn, who threw 101 pitches across 6.2 innings in his first Division I start.

“I didn’t want to try to change everything just because I was getting the ball in the first inning. I knew the job at hand,” the right-hander said. “I knew that I had to try to do everything I could and keep us in the ballgame.

“There’s no worse feeling than this right now.”

Despite allowing five runs, it could be argued that the National Stopper of the Year semifinalist — who had been A&M’s best pitcher, starter or reliever, all season — was the only Aggie star who played decently well in a must-win scenario.

Potential first-rounders Gavin Grahovac, Caden Sorrell and Hacopain went a combined 1-for-11 in their Olsen Field farewell.

Further, the top five men in A&M’s lineup recorded only two hits and a walk in 20 total plate appearances.

Giving credit where it's due, All-Big Ten right-hander Grant Govel allowed one run in four innings of work in his second start of the regional before Chase Herrell provided 3.2 scoreless frames. Sax Matson and Adam Troy combined to find the final four outs to push USC across the finish line.

“They just kept us off balance,” Earley said. “We’re built on two things. We wanna swing at strikes and take balls. This team doesn’t throw balls. They don’t want people. None of their pitchers walk people. You got to get hits, which is the hardest thing to do in sports, and we just weren’t able to do that.”

Danny Grant, TexAgs

Gavin Grahovac’s career stat line reads .313/.405/.648 with 47 home runs, 33 doubles and 146 RBI in 130 games as an Aggie.

Bear Harrison’s third-inning home run staked A&M to an early 1-0 lead but served as the final fireworks of 2026.

With one of the nation’s top offenses — one that averaged nine runs per game to begin the regional — stifled, the Trojans had plenty of time to rattle off seven runs and rattle up the road to North Carolina.

“We gotta get better. We wanna get back to this point and get past this point,” Earley said. “There’s guys like this to my left (Grahovac) that won’t be here, so we got to find the next one of them, and we also got some guys underneath them that are gonna develop into that role.

“We’re looking at everything. Everything. If you can make us better, we want to try to get you here.”

Finishing 41-16 overall, there are questions to face, a core to replace and tough decisions to make.

When Year 3 begins, the improvement must be marked.

Marginal isn’t good enough.