Didn't see anything so figured I'd post. You smart folks think he's as good as this guy says?

Texas A&M landed one of the best pure hitters in the country out of the portal

Chris Hacopian hit .347 with 22 doubles, 29 homers, and 103 RBI over his two seasons at Maryland. Day one pick in July. Electric bat to watch in the SEC this year pic.twitter.com/GtVgxikOHJ

— Stephen Schoch (@bigdonkey47) January 7, 2026

Yes, he was one of the biggest prizes in last year's portal. Preseason AA. We need him to be as good as advertised.

agcrock2005 said:

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Didn't see anything so figured I'd post. You smart folks think he's as good as this guy says?

Texas A&M landed one of the best pure hitters in the country out of the portal

Chris Hacopian hit .347 with 22 doubles, 29 homers, and 103 RBI over his two seasons at Maryland. Day one pick in July. Electric bat to watch in the SEC this year pic.twitter.com/GtVgxikOHJ

— Stephen Schoch (@bigdonkey47) January 7, 2026

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Think Wyatt Henseler, but twice as many walks and RBI's, with half the K's. I've heard him mentioned twice as a potential golden spikes winner.

I expect a solid season from our big 3 bats (Sorrell, Grahovac, and Hacopian), but the real success for this season will be dependent on a few others being consistently productive as well.

It's important to note when looking at Hacopian and Duer being added to this lineup, their K rates were both around 7%. The lowest K rate on our team last year was Kent at 13.6%. The lowest returning K rate is Kiel at 20%.

This team desperately needed guys that'll put the ball in play and we added two guys that do that really well.

HoustonAg2106 said:

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LouisianaCHEN said:

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It's important to note when looking at Hacopian and Duer being added to this lineup, their K rates were both around 7%. The lowest K rate on our team last year was Kent at 13.6%. The lowest returning K rate is Kiel at 20%.

This team desperately needed guys that'll put the ball in play and we added two guys that do that really well.

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The lowest returning K rate is TK at 20%?

What was Sorrell's?

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21.9%

LouisianaCHEN said:

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It's important to note when looking at Hacopian and Duer being added to this lineup, their K rates were both around 7%. The lowest K rate on our team last year was Kent at 13.6%. The lowest returning K rate is Kiel at 20%.

This team desperately needed guys that'll put the ball in play and we added two guys that do that really well.

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Love this tidbit.

LouisianaCHEN said:

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It's important to note when looking at Hacopian and Duer being added to this lineup, their K rates were both around 7%. The lowest K rate on our team last year was Kent at 13.6%. The lowest returning K rate is Kiel at 20%.

This team desperately needed guys that'll put the ball in play and we added two guys that do that really well.

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Hopefully Earley realized his major mistake last season in his hitting philosophy. First game last year, I knew we were in trouble. The entire lineup swining for trajectory and exit velocity. Swing the damn bat to put the ball in play.

dcg4403 said:

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LouisianaCHEN said:

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It's important to note when looking at Hacopian and Duer being added to this lineup, their K rates were both around 7%. The lowest K rate on our team last year was Kent at 13.6%. The lowest returning K rate is Kiel at 20%.

This team desperately needed guys that'll put the ball in play and we added two guys that do that really well.

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Hopefully Earley realized his major mistake last season in his hitting philosophy. First game last year, I knew we were in trouble. The entire lineup swining for trajectory and exit velocity. Swing the damn bat to put the ball in play.

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Agree 100%. Olsen plays big early in the year. Swinging for the fences cost us several games early in the year. Those games were the difference between making the tournament and not.

Listening to the fall game interviews, Sorrell said they have entire bp sessions hitting holes. The way he explained it, it's almost discouraged to hit longballs in bp.

I can't remember which D1 baseball podcast it was but I remember Kendall (I think) stating that Earley wanted to construct this years lineup like LSU. A bunch of different tools you can plug and play with throughout the season depending on a multitude of game situations.

Agryan00 said:

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It wasnt choking to Mizzou? I know there were early season wins taken away. However going into this season, if all we had to do was win the series against the worst team in conference, would you take it?

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If you're 40-16, you still get In despite getting swept by the worst team in the SEC.

Agryan00 said:

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It wasnt choking to Mizzou? I know there were early season wins taken away. However going into this season, if all we had to do was win the series against the worst team in conference, would you take it?

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The Mizzou series was the last hammer blow to the nail in the coffin, but that nail had been driven in pretty far by that point. Getting swept by Vandy and Bama at the start of the SEC season, the Kentucky series loss, as well as our performance in the Houston College Classic is what brought us to the point where we needed to sweep Mizzou to feel safe about being in. One or two more wins in any of those series (especially winning the Kentucky or Alabama series at home) probably would have gotten us in, even with a sweep by Mizzou.

ReelAg6 said:

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85AustinAg said:

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So was this an Earley vs Longley philosophical difference and part of the reason Longley is moving on? Sure seems like a possibility.

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As far as I know, Longley is still on staff. Pennington was brought on to take Will Fox's seat as the infield coach, and he will run the offense from what I can tell. Longley is recruiting coordinator and is a hitting coach. I'd expect Earley to be more hands on in the cages though.

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There's been some news.