Two Aggies Earn Second-Team All-America Honors
Texas A&M’s historic season on the diamond has come to end. The awards, however, are still piling in following the Aggies' departure from the College World Series.
A&M relief pitcher Jacob Palisch and outfielder Dylan Rock were named to D1Baseball.com's All-America Second Team. The organization released both the first- and second-team honors Friday afternoon.
Palisch, a graduate transfer from Stanford, served as the Aggies' top reliever for most of the regular and postseason. He appeared in 29 games coming from the pen, registering a 6-3 record with five saves, a 2.39 ERA, .230 opponent batting average and 73 strikeouts in 60 1/3 innings. Palisch also owned a 6.08 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 10.89 strikeouts per nine innings.
In conference play, Palisch posted a 2-2 record with three saves, a 2.35 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 30.2 innings while holding opponents to a 220 batting average. The lefty pitched in five games during the NCAA Tournament, posting a 2-0 record with 0.63 ERA, 19 strikeouts and a save in 14 1/3 innings.
Rock, a fellow graduate transfer from UTSA, played in 63 games, predominantly seeing action in left field. He led the Aggies in on-base percentage (.468), slugging percentage (.641), runs (67), RBIs (67) and home runs (19) while posting a slash line of .318/.468/.641.
Rock's 19 homers rank fourth on A&M’s single-season list. He also climbed to fourth on the Aggies’ single-season walks with 52 free bases.
Against SEC opponents, Rock led the conference with 42 runs. He ranked second in on-base percentage (.503) and slugging percentage (.773), third in RBIs (34), walks (31), total bases (85) and fourth in home runs (13). In nine postseason games, Rock went 9 of 33 with two home runs and 11 RBIs while drawing eight walks.
Texas A&M returned to the College World Series for the first time since 2017 in the first year of the Jim Schlossnagle era. The Aggies broke their 29-year losing streak in Omaha with wins over Texas and Notre Dame to advance to the semifinals for the first time in program history.
Both of the Aggies' losses came against Oklahoma, which will face Ole Miss for the national title. In the team's 5-1 loss Wednesday, Rock plated the only run with a solo homer in the sixth inning. Palisch took over for starter Ryan Prager in the third and delivered 5 2/3 innings of quality pitching.
“If I had known what I know now, I would have started Palisch,” Schlossnagle said of Palisch's outing. “That's easy to say, but if that's your mindset, then you are cashing in one game for the tournament because he already doesn't bounce back awesome, and obviously, he gave us a ton today."
The Aggies finished the year with a 44-20 record and ranked as high as No. 5 in the country. A&M also took home the title of SEC West regular-season champions after it was projected to finish last in the division and 13th overall in the conference.
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