Top 10 Program? Texas A&M Moves Up Baseball Rankings Following South Carolina Win
Under the direction of Rob Childress, Texas A&M baseball was a consistent top-tier program in the Big 12 and later in the SEC. At the helm in Fort Worth, Jim Schlossnagle stabilized TCU as one of college baseball's most consistent team.
It's a new team for Schlossnagle and a new coach for the Aggies. The results are still the same for both.
The Aggies (30-16, 14-10) move up one spot in the D1 Baseball rankings to No. 10 after their series victory over South Carolina. The win marks the fifth consecutive conference series for Texas A&M and places it just outside the top rankings for national seeding for the upcoming NCAA tournament.
“We have such a resilient group in here,” A&M outfielder Brett Minnich said Saturday. “There’s never a time when we think we’re out of this. We had nobody on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth down by one and ended up winning the game.”
The Aggies totaled 33 runs in the three-game series against the Gamecocks at home, including a 16-4 opening win on Friday night. After being down 8-0 in the second inning Saturday, A&M relied on three home runs to score nine and eventually complete the 13-12 comeback.
Minnich played the hero role Saturday with his walk-off two-run homer to secure the series win. The Aggies dropped the series finale at home behind a bullpen-led pitching staff, 9-4. Infielder Kole Kaler remained hot at the dish, hitting a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh.
For the weekend, second baseman Ryan Targac owned the hottest bat, going 5 for 13 with eight RBIs, four of which were scored on his grand slam Saturday.
“In previous at-bats, they got me on changeups,” Targac said of the home run. “I got that changeup, and I got a good swing on it. It was barreled up, but they kind of got it in on me a little bit. I was hoping the wind would do the rest for me, and it did.”
The Aggies are one of three SEC programs ranked inside the top 10 entering the final two weeks of regular season play. Tennessee (40-6) remains the country's top program despite its series loss to Kentucky over the weekend. Arkansas (36-12) remains at No. 4 after its series win against then-No. 17 Auburn.
LSU improves from No. 20 to No. 17 following a series win over Alabama while Auburn falls to No. 20. Vanderbilt enters the rankings for the first time in three weeks following its series victory over Georgia, coming in at No. 24.
The Aggies will close out their home SEC schedule this weekend with a three-game series against Mississippi State. A&M will finish the season on the road against Ole Miss starting May 19.
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