The Mentality Switch That Resulted In A Career High Day For Aiden Sims

The Texas A&M Aggies baseball team entered the 2026 season looking to prove themselves as capable of rebounding from their disappointing 2025 season, after starting as the pre-season number one team and missing the postseason.

No group had more to prove entering this season than the pitching staff. The Aggies were going to be able to swing the bat, but pitching development would be key to their success this season, and in week two that is already apparent.

Sophomore Aiden Sims had a career day and capped off the weekend sweep for the Aggies against the Penn Quakers. The righty took a week to hone his pitches, and it paid off in his second start of the season.

Shaping Up

Texas A&M Aggies Infielder Gavin Grahovac — Texas A&M Aggies third baseman Gavin Grahovac (9) drives in a run with a sacrifice fly against the Tennessee Volunteers during the third inning at Charles Schwab Field Omaha. | Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

It was a career day for Sims, beating his previous highs in innings pitched and strikeouts during his two-year tenure with the Aggies. He finished with seven innings pitched, 10 strikeouts, allowing just one earned run on three hits.

"I've been working really hard in the bullpen," Sims said of the difference between his week one and week two start. "I've been messing around with my shape on Thursday and that really helped me out today."

It was a textbook day for the Forney native, who even had a no-hitter going through the first five innings of the game, and finally surrendered one in the sixth inning when fatigue was starting to mount for him. While his first start was a great first point, he took the time during the week to hone in even more, and move from a good performance, to being flat out dominant.

"Just commanding the fastball way better," Sims said of his effectiveness on the mound in the game three win. "I didn't miss up. I missed up a lot last week, and then the sweeper shape got extremely better over the week. I messed with some pitch grips on Thursday and that really helped me out."

The pitching staff as a whole was great on the weekend, allowing just two runs in the series against the Quakers. They found themselves being more aggressive on the mound, attacking hitters and trusting their skills.

"That's awesome, and that's what we preach," Sims said about the staff not allowing a walk during the weekend series. "In the bullpen, we've had to call out a shape to a location to end the count, so fastball middle 0-0, just get our mind on the pitch. You can't throw a bad pitch in the zone."

For a position group that was left wondering how they could help the club's success, they were mainly the reason the Aggies were able to complete the sweep, picking up a struggling offense. For Sims and the rest of the staff, finding a way to remain consistent turns them from a good baseball team to a dangerous one.