I’ve got to keep this a touch shorter this week. Just keep winning series by any means necessary.
That’s exactly what happened last week vs. South Carolina. The Aggies scratched and clawed and fought their way to a series win without much at all to show from the starting pitching effort. It was borderline abysmal on the whole, yet Jim Schlossnagle’s crew found a way to win.
All this guy does is win, and his teams take on that same toughness and determination. When you have an intense competitor and a lifetime winner at the helm of your program, it penetrates throughout the entire clubhouse and manifests in a tough-minded, competitive team that just finds a way. As evidenced by the wild and wacky comeback from a 9-0 hole to beat the Gamecocks on Saturday, 13-12.
Despite the loss on Sunday, the Aggies won yet another series — that’s now five series wins in a row — and have suddenly climbed into the top-10 in the latest D1Baseball rankings. What’s more ... the Aggies came in No. 7 in last week’s D1Baseball Regional Projections.
Life’s good around the corner of George Bush and Olsen, but there is so much baseball left to be played.
Just. Keep. Winning. Games.
Here’s a statistical look, By The Numbers, at A&M’s 3-1 week and series win over South Carolina...
Hayden Carroll/Texas A&M Athletics
As the Ags keep winning, they’ll keep consuming the Pringles in the third-base dugout.
-12 - A&M’s drop in RPI ranking from last week despite going 3-1 and winning the series with the Gamecocks. Even after winning the first two games over the weekend, the Aggies saw a slight dip in RPI due to South Carolina’s mid-60s ranking (currently No. 67), but that number plummeted all the way to No. 24 after the 9-4 defeat on Sunday. A&M’s Strength of Schedule also went from No. 5 to begin last week to No. 12 as the dust settled on the weekend.
A&M’s last remaining opponents will not do much at all to help both metrics, as Mississippi State enters this week ranked No. 102, Incarnate Word is No. 194 and Ole Miss is No. 56.
#1 - Ryan Targac’s SEC ranking in RBIs in conference games. The sophomore has driven in an eye-popping 34 runs in 24 SEC games, which is four more RBIs than any other hitter in the league. In fact, all but 11 of Targac’s RBIs have come against SEC pitching. He also has nine home runs in SEC games, tying him with Dylan Rock and Florida’s Wyatt Langford for ninth in the league. Targac is not the only A&M hitter to be leading the conference in a major offensive category. Austin Bost is tied for the league lead in hits with 36, and Rock is tops in runs scored with 32.
2.0 - Games out of first place for Texas A&M in the SEC West. A&M is 14-10 in league play and 2.0 games behind Arkansas atop the division (with the Aggies owning the tiebreaker). The Aggies close the regular season with Ole Miss and Mississippi State, who have a combined SEC record of 19-29. The Hogs get Alabama and Vanderbilt to close out (combine league record of 22-26).
5 - Walks for Dylan Rock in Friday’s 16-4 victory. In that game, Rock pulled off something you don’t see every day: An 0-for-0 day at the plate with five walks. He now has 37 base on balls this season, pulling to within four free passes of Kole Kaler (41) for the team lead.
5 - As in the Five Factors ... a stat that we’ve tracked for years in the old “Diamond Notes” feature and are continuing here. The five factors to success offensively and defensively/on the mound ... hitting with two outs, with runners on, with runners in scoring position, getting the leadoff man on base and two-out RBIs. Here’s how A&M did on both offense and positionally in four games last week...
Offensively:
- Two outs - .279 (12-for-43) ... down 10 points from last week
- Runners on - .329 (24-for-73) ... down 17 points from last week
- Runners in scoring position - .292 (14-for-48) ... down 11 points from last week
- Leadoff OBP - .441 (15-for-34) ... up 108 points from last week
- Two-out RBIs - 15 ... up five RBI from last week
Defensively:
- Two outs - .321 (17-for-53) ... up (opponent improvement) 43 points from last week
- Runners on - .259 (22-for-85) ... up 80 points from last week
- Runners in scoring position - .224 (11-for-49) ... up 121 points from last week
- Leadoff OBP - .538 (18-for-36) ... down (A&M improvement) 38 points from last week
- Two-out RBIs - 8 ... up one RBI from last week
Jamie Maury, TexAgs
The longest start of the weekend, Nathan Dettmer lasted just 4.2 innings before giving way to the Aggie bullpen.
8 - Errors for the Aggies in four games last week. A&M fielded over .950 in just one game and has steadily watched its fielding percentage drop as the season has worn on.
The Ags are fielding .971 on the season (12th in SEC) and .968 in SEC games (last in the league). The current middle infield combination of Kole Kaler at SS (11 Es; .939%) and Ryan Targac at second (9 Es; .937%) has totaled 20 errors this season, while Trevor Werner in limited action at 3B has six errors and a .829 fielding percentage.
8 - Major offensive categories in which A&M leads the SEC in league games. With just two weekends to play in the regular season, the Aggies lead the league in batting average (.289, eight points ahead of UGA), on-base percentage (.394, 20 points ahead of UT), hits (250, eight ahead of MSU), RBIs (171, 11 ahead of UT), runs (180, nine ahead of UT), doubles (45, three ahead of Vanderbilt and UT), walks (132, 15 ahead of UT) and sacrifice flies (13, tied with Vanderbilt). The only major offensive area that A&M is not among the top-four SEC teams in league games is home runs (seventh with 34).
9.23 - Combined ERA for Micah Dallas and Ryan Prager — two-thirds of A&M’s weekend rotation against South Carolina — in league games this season. Dallas is sitting at 1-3 with a 9.08 ERA in conference action, while Prager’s 9.53 ERA in SEC games is the highest (worst) on the roster. They’ve combined to allow 54 earned runs in 52.2 innings pitched with 25 walks and 54 strikeouts. League opponents are hitting them at .350 and .370, respectively. Not good at all, and the Aggies continue to win despite massive issues in the starting rotation.
No idea what Jim Schlossnagle and Nate Yeskie will do to get it right, but it has become very clear that Micah Dallas needs to be removed from starting duties for the time being. As it worked several times in Lubbock in past seasons, a move to the bullpen might do him quite well heading down the home stretch. The really interesting situation is who the coaches elect to replace Dallas and Prager. I’d be pretty surprised if Will Johnston, Wyatt Tucker, Robert Hogan, Brad Rudis or even Joseph Menefee don’t get a look in a high-leverage starting role soon enough.
10 - Home runs last week for the Aggies. That included two dingers apiece from Austin Bost and Ryan Targac and one homer each from Trevor Werner, Jack Moss, Dylan Rock, Brett Minnich, Jordan Thompson and Kole Kaler. A&M now has 57 home runs on the season. That’s just nine away from matching last season’s mark of 66 HRs (19 from Will Frizzell in 2021).
11 - Strikeouts in two appearances last week for Wyatt Tucker. The sophomore from Douglass, Texas (population ~500) entered last week having logged just 4.2 innings on the season, but Tucker looked good out of the bullpen in the midweek game vs. UTA (1.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K). He got inserted into action early vs. South Carolina on Saturday with the Aggies trailing 7-0, and Tucker was a huge key to A&M’s dramatic comeback bid. He allowed just two earned runs on five hits over 5.1 innings of work, walking only one and fanning six. Without that heroic effort, there is no way A&M comes close to being able to pull out that thrilling comeback.
That’ll just about do it this go-around. No midweek game this week and the final regular-season home series of 2022 takes place Friday-Sunday with defending national champion Mississippi State — currently last in the SEC West — makes its way to Olsen at Blue Bell Park.
Can’t wait to see how the Aggies stack up with the talented but struggling Bulldogs. Can’t wait to see what — if anything — Schlossnagle and Yeskie decide to do with the rotation to change things up. Can’t wait to sit back as a fan of the game and this team and watch the Aggies play ball this weekend.
See you around the yard!
