Texas A&M Baseball: Consensus Top 10 Entering Season's Final Week
Jim Schlossnagle knows something about running a top-five program during his 18-year run at the helm for TCU. He now knows a similar concept for Texas A&M entering the closing days of his debut season as the Aggies coach.
The Aggies are now a consensus top-10 program entering the final week of the regular season. A&M (32-16, 16-10 SEC) moved from No. 12 to No. 4 in Baseball America on Monday following its series sweep over Mississippi State.
On D1 Baseball's latest ranking, the Aggies come in at No. 6 following cracking the top 10 earlier this month. A&M also moved into first place in the SEC West going into its last series of the regular season at Ole Miss.
"Anytime there's a championship that can be played for, we want to win it," Schlossnagle said Sunday following the 8-2 win in the regular season home finale. "I don't care if it's the Houston College Classic, Frisco or the SEC West. If there's a championship to play for, we want to win it."
The Aggies are in prime position to be a top 16 seed in the field of 64 for the NCAA Tournament and host a regional at Blue Bell Park.
The win Sunday marked the first conference series sweep for A&M this season. The Aggies were in control against the defending College World Series champs, scoring at least eight runs in all three games.
Things have drastically changed since the series loss on February to Penn. No, the Aggies haven't been the hottest team in the sport offensively — then again, tell that to outfielder Dylan Rock. When the starting pitching has struggled, the bullpen has worked its magic.
Conference play has been the storyline to follow in this spring. Since the series win in at then-No. 8 LSU, the unranked Aggies have found ways to win. Sometimes it's on the mound. Others, it's hitting .
More often than not, the result has been the same — win, win win.
“Our intention has been to win the entire season,” senior catcher Troy Claunch said Friday. “So you can’t be surprised when you win.”
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The Aggies have won six consecutive conference series. For the season, A&M has won nine of its 12 three-game sets and looks to hit double digits over the weekend.
Along the way, A&M also has picked up big wins over then-No. 8 Texas, No. 15 Texas State and No. 25 Dallas Baptist — two of which came in front of a surging home crowd inside Blue Bell Park.
The Aggies could have nabbed one more win at home, but they elected to cancel the last out of conference game against Incarnate Word to save the arms.
“My job is to take care of the A&M baseball program and put us in the best possible position to be successful in a postseason, if there is one,” Schlossnagle said. “That’s the choice we made.”
A&M will open a three-game series Friday in Oxford. A series win clinches the regular season SEC West title. First pitch for Game 1 is set for 6:30 p.m.
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